Transcript for:
Exploring True Teachings of Jesus

the big error that Christian theology makes is that they purport that the universe that God made has fallen into sin we have a sin nature there's no such thing as a sin nature or an evil nature because all Natures all Essence comes from God and God is purely good and cannot create evil but there's a core of truth to it which is that we're on an evolutionary Journey we're growing we're learning we're evolving and God wants us to learn from our mistakes but Christianity blows up mistakes into these maniacal evil power called sin it's totally absurd Jesus was giving us the tools to transform our own Consciousness so we could live in harmony with this identic ideal Jesus all of his teachings are pointing us back to the Garden of Eden a world of pure love pure Harmony there's no violence there's not even forgiveness because there's nothing to forgive this is the big difference to me James between Christian eschatology and Christ's eschatology is that yes is esoy was bringing the Heaven to Earth and that the end of days would be when we finally manifest the kingdom here but it became Paul's religion of let's get the hell out of here this place is evil and wicked run by the devil and we got to just abandon it and go to heaven Jesus did not teach escapism Jesus taught manifestation welcome to the Jesus way podcast a series dedicated to restoring the true Gospel of Jesus we believe that Jesus showed us the perfect way to God so we invite you to walk the Jesus way with us hello and welcome back to the Jesus way podcast a series dedicated to uncovering the true Gospel of Yeshua the Nazarene my name is Aaron ABY and I'm joined alongside my good friend and co-host Mr James beneo how you doing brother doing great what's up y'all you know it's worth mentioning James that we are without our third Compadre for this show right now because Mr Cameron Waters just had his first child with his uh partner L they had a son who they named very appropriately Eden which is um not only fitting for Cam being kind of the expert in that subject and pioneering that whole topic through christacy but um even the fact that on this very show today we're going to be talking about the identic ideal so just want to send a quick blessing of love and support to you Cam and just congrat rations to you guys on your amazing new little baby boy and we can't wait to have you back on the podcast but no rush man um as someone who just went through fatherhood myself I can say it might be a couple of months before we get camed back the truth but so today you know we want to talk about a continuation of what we discussed last week where we sort of went back to the first century and said okay look let's start from scratch who was this itinerant Hebrew Rabbi Yeshua the Nazarene what was he all about and what were the things he actually taught when he walked and talked among us because there is this huge distinction at least as far as we're concerned between the Jesus of history and the Jesus of theology the Jesus of theology is the one that is ruled and reigned through christiandom and and religion for 2,000 years but is really a far cry from the actual Jesus of history and so we went back to the Jesus of History last week and we're going to go a little bit deeper into that today by talking about what we believe you know when we use this phrase the the Lost Gospel of Jesus or the Forgotten Gospel of Jesus today we're going to show you exactly what that lost gospel really is which is about what we believe is was yeshua's absolute number one mission for his entire Teaching Ministry which was teaching others how to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth your kingdom come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven that we're going to show you today that this was yeshua's entire mission in Ministry in terms of like if you could have gotten him alone and said all right Jesus what are you really trying to accomplish with all this preaching and teaching we believe Jesus Yeshua probably would have said I want to teach God's people how to bring God's kingdom to Earth as it is in heaven and that's not an answer James you'd probably hear in church or that anyone's probably heard before what we think we're going to do do today is show you guys Beyond doubt through Jesus's own teachings that that is for certain what he was interested in doing in the first century and that that really does pull out the Jesus of history in a very new way that in the Jesus of theology it's all about his virgin birth and his death and resurrection and the middle part gets pretty much forgotten as we say the Forgotten Gospel of Jesus is in those middle years his actual life and Ministry I mean it should be clear right that if we really believe that the Messiah the Son of God the Christ incarnated in a human body and walked and talked Among Us and had a Ministry and teaching career for who knows how many years then we should probably be pretty concerned with what did he say what did he teach what was his ideal as a teacher what was he trying to do or accomplish or establish and that's what today's episode is all about so James where do you want to start us off today with this topic of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth well there's only one place we can start and that is with the most famous beloved prayer in all of Christianity The Lord's Prayer and this is how Jesus taught his disciples to pray and again Yeshua was being very clear about his mission over and over and that's what we're g to look into today and it's right in front of our faces here in the Lord's Prayer so let's let's go through this step by step because it's such a profound prayer and really shows us exact L who Jesus was and what his mission was so it starts with Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven so the first thing that strikes me James about the Lord's Prayer is that it's all in the present tense it's like your will be done right now on Earth as it is in heaven and that's powerful because that's the only place we can really from where there is power because reality is now the universe is now God is now past and future are really Illusions in the mind and so when we pray for a future goal we're sort of always putting it off from ourselves and I think that's also why Jesus taught in mark 11:24 whatever things you ask for in prayer just believe you've already received them and they shall be yours meaning bring it into the present tense bring it into the present moment why because God is the first person in the present tense I am I am is the name of God so when we pray we must pray from that I am state of everything my father has is here and now present and available to me if I'm able to uh align myself with it through what I call Kingdom Consciousness we're going to unpack that term a little bit more as we go forward but present tense is the first thing that jumps out the other thing that jumps out James is what does it mean to be in heaven Our Father Who Art in Heaven for a long time Christians have interpreted this to mean a far away place in a spiritual realm somewhere that's not here right but to be in heaven is a it's talking about a state to be in the state of heaven or or Kingdom Consciousness Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is in you or within you in the Gospel of Thomas Jesus says the kingdom of Heaven is in you and outside of you meaning it's in everything you see and it's within you as well you cannot Escape it so the question is why don't we experience the Kingdom of Heaven why don't we all feel like H I'm already a perfect being walking in a perfect Universe just like we're supposed to feel in heaven well it's because our minds are impure tainted with sin and selfishness and so forth and so we need to cleanse our mind and heal our mind from these illusions of darkness and and separation and that's what Jesus's teachings and his his practices were all about repentance forgiveness love and service to others these are the most powerful Ways by far to cleanse our mind and heal our perception of separateness and judgment and so forth so as we're going to talk about all of these things are Kingdom manifestation statements right Jesus says pray like this and then says these words Our Father in Heaven bless your name your kingdom come here right now let your will be done here right now exactly as it is where you are so we're we're asking God to help us remove all of our human influence from God's universe and to let it stand revealed as the perfect Universe God created the kingdom of heaven and as we've said on the show before James especially in our ontology episode if God is perfect then everything God creates must be perfect this is uh the theory of proportionate causality in philosophy which says a cause cannot give to its effect what it doesn't have and so if if Christianity or any religion is proposing that God has created this very flawed very imperfect Universe well you're you're violating the principle of proportionate causality God doesn't have imperfection that he could it could create imperfection so the imperfection we see is in our mind only we don't understand universal law we don't understand the way that divine forces are interplaying with one another and causing events and cause an effect to happen but that doesn't mean it's imperfect just because I don't understand it so to me James this is like a reorientation of our perception it's like no Your Kingdom Come On Earth as it is in heaven let me see and be aware of your will here and now it's not this apocalyptic message right of God come soon and in future times any day now and judge the evil and take us up to heaven like like Paul said right it's not about escaping ISM for Jesus it's about manifestation and that's the point we're going to continue to Hammer as we go forward awesome brother moving along we have give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us this is amazing because in the Kingdom of Heaven There is no disputes you know there's there's no conflict so forgiveness is kind of a prerequisite to enter the kingdom we cannot be in alignment with the energies or characteristics of God at all if we are living in unforgiveness right I mean that's what we talked about last week this was Jesus's entire soteriology was if you don't forgive others you can't be forgiven period you can't violate the law and then expect the law not to violate you in return it has to be a mutual reciprocity always so it's like if you don't want to be judged no problem just don't judge others and you're good M easier said than done but that's Jesus's soteriology this is the way he was showing us to be right with God is love everyone do not judge and forgive everybody and he says it here in the Lord's Prayer again pray like this Jesus says forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us he's not he's he's putting it so clearly right that this isn't an option he's saying hey we we already do this we already forgive those who trespass against us and Jesus's gospel this was the criteria this is the the standard he expected forgiveness always why because forgiveness heals our perception of judgment separateness evil sin darkness and so forth these things are invented in the mind only we didn't get to touch on this too much James in our first ontology episode um I did explain the nature of evil a little bit in that episode but this goes back to a philosophical Theory called pration or the principle of pration which means that evil is not a real second power apart from God St Thomas aquinus believed this St Augustine believed this many of the Greek philosophers such as Aristotle believed this evil is an absence not a presence evil is the corruption of something good not a second thing that opposes good and so that's the key here of forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us it's I refuse to create cre pration in my mind any longer I refuse to corrupt what is good what is good other people everybody else is a son a daughter of the most high and if I judge them for their outward reflection their their body their appearance what they're doing what they're saying what they're thinking what they believe if I'm judging based on outer appearances as Jesus says he sayso not judge by outer appearances but judge with righteous judgment he means judge like discern what is right from what is not right is what he's saying saying but don't judge on Surface appearances if someone's doing something that's not righteous then okay accept that and I that's not righteous I'm not going to participate in that but he said don't judge the outward appearance though because now you're getting back into pration you're you're corrupting in your mind what God made perfect even the Bible says when God made man God said it is good not evil or sinful so forgive us as we forgive is rule number one for Jesus's gospel and give us our bread Our Daily Bread is a prayer of affirmation that God is the power that meets all of our needs God is the only Power in the universe God is infinite Supply and infinite abundance and so I don't need to ever feel like I'm lacking I just need to call upon the source of infinite Supply and say God give me my daily bread today and Jesus said doesn't God Feed The Sparrows how much more will he you feed and take care of you if he even takes care of the birds and the bugs and the flowers like come on God is the source of everything and so Jesus puts that in here through the phrase give us this day our daily bread so like Jesus is covering a lot of huge spiritual principles in this prayer um and then of course the the last couple phrases here lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil so it's Jesus's way of saying God don't let us be tempted keep us away from that which which turns us from your holy law from Divine truth Deliver Us from Evil well how does God Deliver Us from Evil if we're just going around judging people in our mind all day see if forgiveness came before Deliver Us from Evil Jesus is putting this in a very specific order give us our daily bread meaning trust God for all things never move into fear or doubt that God is in control from there we can actually practice forgiveness knowing that God's already in control I don't need to judge anything you know judging people is an act of trying to control them in your mind God's in control so I don't to do or judge anybody God's taking care of it all now that I'm not judging and I'm forgiving others I can ask God to allow me to avoid Temptation God lead me not into temptation today deliver me from Evil it's like I could not I could never ask God for that before I've practiced the preliminary steps trusting God forgiving others not judging there's a there's a reason Jesus put it in this order right and so Deliver Us from Evil if Evil's only a provation in my mind a perception a deterioration of what is good we're asking God to heal our mind when we say Deliver Us from Evil again evil isn't a second power the devil that really exists and can pull me into it against my will and Evil's fighting against God deliver me God from Evil no that's not that's not what Jesus is saying evil there's only one God one power evil doesn't exist ontologically it is like a shadow when light is obscured a shadow is cast and we can all see the shadow we all experience the shadow no one's denying that but if we go to the shadow to try to touch it pull it off the ground weigh it on a scale we find nothing real right because darkness is just the absence of light evil is exactly like that evil is the absence of good or love and sin is just a movement of the will away from good away from love away from God so Deliver Us from the temptation to move away from good AKA from Evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen that last part is not just like a flowery statement either is it it's like remember who has all power all glory we got to keep this in our mind right and we talked about this James in our ontology episode of like we should be chewing on meditating on the nature of God the Perfection of God the power of God the omnipotence and omnipresence of God you should be feeding your awareness on these ities all day and this last line is kind of like one of those affirmations or prayers we can get in the habit of saying for yours is the kingdom the power the glory forever and ever amen it is finished it is done no argument God is Sovereign over all you can't meditate on that too much can you James you can and you're actually aligning yourself with that power and that Glory when you know you help the person in need when you act lovingly when you forgive others you're you're sharing God's Essence is love so you're sharing in that Essence and you're participating in this beautiful dance of life you know how how can you be in celebration of the glory of the of God and hating people at the same time I think it's an impossibility so if you want if you want to feel the glory of God pray this prayer and then live it you know do your best to live it and the thing that sticks to me is if we're going to manifest God's Kingdom on Earth can we just think it or is there anything we have to do exactly there there just isn't such a thing as faith alone that's all there is no such thing as faith alone always will show up as works and so that's why I Think Jesus and his brother James focused on a heavy Works based gospel or Works based teachings because like look if we just admonish you to keep the Commandments love your neighbor forgive others do the works of Faith the faith is already baked into it it's impossible you could do the works of God without faith in God and people might say well what about like you know uh just doing it to look good it's like then it's not a good work my friend like Jesus said when you give to the poor don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing if you give to the poor and you're like look everyone I brought this wonderful meal spread for the for the homeless people today look how many sandwiches are on it and how many how much fruit I brought here take I'm so compassionate like nobody would think you were there to do a good work people would be like let me get this guy out of here it's not sincere it's not real it's not a good work if it's about your ego inflating your ego good works have to be authentic and if they are authentic you have faith sign seal delivered we don't need to even question it anymore but if we get into the realm of faith alone and trust me I have faith yeah yeah yeah yeah I believe it's like well we can't go into your brain and verify if you really do believe or if you're just saying it because you want to be part of the Christian club or feel like you're accepted in the group like we can't know if your faith is real if you don't do good works and that's why Jesus was all about all about bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth in manifestation actually living as if we're in heaven right now so Aaron I'm curious about this what about let's say an atheist who has a huge heart and they're always doing charitable work helping the poor that person doesn't have faith in God but they're doing the works of God in a way by sharing in love and service so how do we understand this in the Paradigm that we were just discussing I love this question because it really allows us to clarify what we mean when we say this word god religion means God is my idea of God right God is what I think think God is and so when Christians say people reject God they mean people reject my mental depiction of God and that's I believe that that's what God is and so if you don't agree with my mental depiction you don't believe in God but I'm pretty sure in first John it says whoever loves knows God because God is love so if you have love you have God and so maybe the atheist rejects a religious depiction of God or a hypocritical version of God they've seen or a God that has too many logical fallacies to be supported intellectually but God isn't any of those things God isn't an idea a belief system a Doctrine a mental depiction God is love and so whoever actually cares enough to love people clearly believes in God whether they know it or not when somebody knows that love is the most important thing and like nobody really lives a life of of being charitable and kind and generous to others unless they've come to this inner concl illusion right that you know life really it's all about love when you love others life gets beautiful when you hate others life gets terrible many atheists come to this conclusion and so I like to remind Christians that this idea that you can reject God to me is a laughable fallacy utterly laughable to say you can reject God the source of all love and Bliss and peace and joy and contentment and infinity and Eternity try and have somebody see see God and reject God I'll wait I'd love to you to show me the person who's met God and rejected God even atheists who have near-death experiences James don't reject God right oh my gosh there really is a source of love and life and Eternity it's this instant recognition of what we've always known is true that there's something behind us back of us that gives us existence and if Christianity presents a version of God that is logically fallacious well then it's good people reject that but that's not the same thing as saying they reject God in actuality right and this is why some Christians end up in these hellish Realms during their near-death experiences because they believed the right things they were religious but they didn't live a loving life so that proves the point right there as we said last week only by following Jesus's greatest Commandments to love your neighbor as yourself only by loving others do we actually come in contact Direct contact with God itself everything else is just mental ideas that can be good but it's the experience of God we're after and the experience of God is love so I mean again how do you reject perfect eternal love it's not possible nobody could do that even in John chapter 1 it says no one has ever seen God at any time and it says but Jesus has revealed him to us so how does no one ever see God at any time ever and people reject God it's a logical fallacy people don't reject God people reject the Christian God and that is absolutely not the same thing not at all thank you for clar clarifying that Aaron so next we're going to dive into all of these teachings and Parables by Jesus where he was clearly demonstrating that if we have one job it is to work on building the kingdom here on Earth and aligning oursel with it so let's dive into some of these teachings Jesus was not unclear about this at all so it's so interesting how many Christians are just waiting to die and go to heaven you know from believing the right Doctrine it's like let's take a look at these and see if that see if that's what he was really talking about yeah yeah it is very ironic right how Jesus said I've come that you might have life and life more abundantly and then that turned into a religion where people say Jesus came that we could die and go to heaven when we die like now it's all about death and after death blood pours over us and then we die yeah it's like this death cult like blood sacrifice crucifixion now we go to heaven after we die death is like the Ultimate key to everything in that theology but let's look at what Jesus said in Matthew 4:17 it says from that time Jesus began began to Proclaim repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near other translations say the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand so this is huge because this is Jesus's first public declaration at least written in the gospels he has his 40-day Wilderness experience Temptation in the desert comes out after the baptism and starts his ministry according to the synoptics and it says the first thing out of his mouth is repent for the kingdom is here well I think that's pretty good evidence for what his basic message must have been don't you yeah Jesus is giving us a succinct road map to enter the kingdom and it's by turning away from sin and turning our minds and hearts to the Divine Law and the Divine Way well we talked about this uh last episode as well James of Jesus's soteriology meaning Jesus's um protocols for salvation we said it was number one repent to enter the kingdom based on this verse here Jesus says repent for the kingdom is at hand so that's the qualifying word it's like repent because the kingdom is at hand so Jesus is saying when you repent metanoya change your thinking turn your whole heart to God is what that means when you repent turn your whole heart to God you are in the Kingdom because it's already here the caveat we gave is that the second part of Jesus J's gospel was keep the Commandments or obedience to God's Divine Law the law of one obedience to stay in the Kingdom because repentance is how we enter the kingdom if we're not already in it and that's very important but we don't want to just enter the kingdom and then get ripped out of it again because we sin and judge people we want to stay in the Kingdom once we enter it we want to live in the Kingdom so as repent to enter the kingdom uh obedience to stay in the kingdom and then we said love and service to increase in the Kingdom so all three elements all three pillars of Jesus's gospel was about how to manifest the kingdom and here it is in his very first public declaration repent for the kingdom is here so Aon how does this differ from a traditional Christian understanding of this phrase because for most Christians they would understand this very differently than we're talking about it right now well I think the way that modern Protestant Christianity understands the word repent is because it's always coupled with the Lord's the sinner's prayer so it'll you know say hey repent and okay how do I repent repeat after me I believe Jesus died for my sins rose on the third day forgive me for my sins amen so it's like they put the repent forgive me for my sins part in the prayer but it's always kind of joined with the sinner's prayer so repent to Christians when they hear it in their mind it's like confess Jesus Lord and believe in his death and resurrection that he died for your sins and rose again that you can be saved from your sins a lot of times there's not even a forgive me of my sins it's like I'm a sinner what else can I do I'm totally depraved Totally Wicked and so all I can do is sin so I just confess and believe and Jesus's righteousness becomes my righteousness so it's this total spiritual bypassing which is nowhere in the mouth of Jesus as we like to point out Jesus never said confess me as Lord believe my resurrection none of it he put all of the gospel in your hands if you want to enter the kingdom you must repent you want to be forgiven you must forgive and so on and so forth if we take that belief to The Logical conclusion it would be absolutely impossible to create the kingdom here on Earth with an attitude that we're helpless Sinners with no with no hope of being righteous right on the flip side if we believe that we can be righteous through rep repentance and through turning our whole heart and mind to God well with that attitude and mindset and heart set we can actually forgive people actually be of service and actually you know create a civilization that is based on Divine Law and morality that's what Jesus was trying to do it's like look someone at some point somebody's got to demonstrate this act this out live this because God's kingdom is already available in potential but to make it actual we've got to live it somebody's got to do it and uh James remind me didn't you tell me the other day that you watched uh George jenko podcast and he he said look I've just accepted that all I'm ever gonna be is a dirty Sinner and all I can do is sin I've just come to accept that was that George jenko yeah yeah there was a few clips of George basically making that point and then he was like you know if God comes down and tells me that he burns people for eternity and tortures them you know it's it is what it is is I'm just gonna he says I I captain but I think the the larger point with George's statement is that there's a grain of Truth in there as there is to every religious belief there's a core of Truth in there but it's usually surrounded by dogma and man-made Theology and the core of Truth in what George was saying in that statement is as long as I'm in a physical human body I'm always going to be learning and growing I'm always going to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes and this is the way it's supposed to be this isn't a mistake and this is the the big error that Christian theology makes is that they they purport that the universe that God made has fallen into sin we have a sin nature and as we're going to discuss later there is no such thing as a sin nature or an evil nature because all Natures all Essence comes from God and God is purely good and cannot create evil so it's an ontological fallacy to say that God creates an evil sin nature in us and now we're all Sinners but there's a core of truth to it which is that we're on an evolutionary Journey we're growing we're learning we're evolving and God wants us to learn from our mistakes but Christianity blows up mistakes into these you know these megalomaniacal evil power called sin that God abhor and detests and enrages God he has to judge and and punish it and give me Bloodshed it's totally absurd it's like you think God really didn't know that all humans for all time in history were going to be imperfect like maybe God being already perfect he's so shocked and surprised how could this happen I mean I know I know everything and I'm all intelligent and all powerful but this really caught me off guard that people like fornicating and doing drugs I cannot believe it this is yeah it's it's the biggest fallacy ever to assume that God would hold hold everyone to a standard of perfect behavior and yet create no one capable of perfect behavior and then also judge them for that surely God knows if God's omnicient that nobody will ever have the ability to have perfect Behavior their entire life and what does that even mean what does that even look like how would you know if someone had perfect Behavior it's kind of subjective God's not looking for perfect behavior from us God's already perfect God doesn't need your Perfection God wants you to learn and grow yeah and grow closer to God grow in Greater wisdom with God and greater love in God and every challenge we face every mistake we make is an opportunity to learn more and grow more and that's the purpose of sin it's not a blight against you or something that God hates you for it just means you're a learning growing evolving being and so I think George jenko's comment is partially true and that yes you're always going to be making mistakes and errors and judgment because we have a finite mind and that's part of it but that's good and that's the way God created it to be and we can actually see that as a perfect design in its own way it is a perfect design because you know Ed melet he's a big like personal development coach well he says your mess becomes your message and to me that perfectly exemplifies how periods in our life where we may have fallen into sin and suffering actually serve as the launching pad for our service to others we can help others based on where we've fallen short in the past so this is God's Perfect Design you think God is furious um who's an example of someone who like RFK do you think God is so Furious that he used to be a drug addict now that he's helping so many people get healthy and and get off drugs no he used that chapter of his life to help others so this is all about the process of regeneration and our our spiritual gifts coming online the bigger your point there James just to stop you for a second is that's a great analogy because what you're really touching on is that while RFK was still a drug addict in the 1970s or whatever God always knew being omniscient that it would eventually lead to RFK becoming a champion for health and you know pioneering Health in America again one day like this incredible Destiny was lying in front of RFK when he was a lowly heroin addict in his you know early 20s or something so you think God was angry at RFK for being a drug addict while he knew it was going to end up being the Catalyst for his entire purpose in life God can't be angry at anything because God knows everything that's the imagine if he got angry and like all right I'm pulling the plug on this guy he's he's a wreck let's just send him to hell and just send them to Hell pulling the plug on this one yeah it doesn't make any sense God has the master Vision the full picture we don't we always project our own limited thinking onto God we projected God in our own image and I mean this is what I often say is that the god of protestant Christianity is a glorified human being he's just like us just a bigger version of us megalomaniacal jealous envious angry wrathful vengeful that's like a a low level of Consciousness human and we think that the lord of the universe is like that his ways are higher than our ways brother yeah and that's the other copout that's always used it's like oh oh oh so our way is love and forgiveness and we wish God could just forgive and be kind but unfortunately he does need blood sacrifices to forgive oh so you're the kind one and God is the vengeful bloodthirsty one got it that makes sense it's so disrespectful I'm sorry it's like 100% the other thing I wanted to add is I really like the Eastern Orthodox take on they don't call it a sinid nature but they think of it more of more as Sin momentum yeah how how sin can breed more sin in a sense and you you can build momentum with anything in life with good habits with bad habits so they kind of viewed it as a sin momentum through generations and learned behaviors right just like you could teach your kids great moral Behavior you can ALS also imprint negative behaviors so I think that's a cool lens to view sin through a much better perspective on sin and I totally agree like the effects of sin are definitely passed down if if a parent you know is drug addict or alcoholic or whatever like that's going to affect their children in some way to grow up in an alcoholic household or even if they're unhealthy and they eat toxic food their kids are going to suffer the consequences and you could extrapolate this to the whole world in so many ways but the effects of human behavior are definitely felt down the chain the link of the chain cause and effect that's not the same thing as saying we're all inherently evil and depraved and corrupt from birth I mean that's more of a calvinist view but it's still a very prominent Viewpoint in in Protestant Christianity think about a war or like what's happening with Israel and in Palestine like where atrocities have been committed by both sides and there's just this hate momentum going back and forth throughout history the only way to break that is with forgiveness forgiveness gives us an opportunity to stop that momentum the sin and hate momentum it's the only way and look anyone can look at the other side and see horrific things that have been done without a doubt but if we just always look at the negative it will continue like we and it's easy for me to say not being involved in this conflict but objectively the only way to end the hate is to forgive only way and I mean Jesus taught us exactly how to do that how to end that endless link of cause and effect that that you know revenge and warfare perpetuates he said you've heard it was said an eye for an eye tooth for a tooth but I say a new commandment love your enemies bless those who persecute you forgive them that's how you end the war you end it you have to end it first and most people in war are pointing the finger at the other being like you stop Waring but it's like but you're Waring ing you're still at war with them when you expect that they should be the one to wave the White Flag first so Jesus said no you've got to do it again see here here's the theme Everything Jesus teaches is about spiritual self-responsibility there's no Outsourcing in Jesus's gospel there's no bypassing in Jesus's gospel so to Rattle off the last three of these here for the kingdom we have Matthew 18:3 where Jesus says truly I say to you unless you turn metanoia and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven and then in Matthew 19:14 he says another similar passage let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for such belongs to the kingdom of heaven so we can look at children right there and all the qualities we know of children and love and children the Innocence the Purity the the presence the spontaneity the childlikeness to just want to have fun and like not take everything so damn seriously there's so many beautiful qualities of children and Jesus says Hey unless you become like that you can't enter the Kingdom so that must mean that the Kingdom of Heaven what it's like to exist in God's universe as God designed it means we must have innocent Minds pure Vision we must not be in fear or doubt but we must be completely in Trust of our heavenly father just as any good child trusts their their father or mother to protect them and keep them safe we have to be like a child spiritually in the sense that we're just happy to be alive we're present we're free we're spontaneous we're not taking ourselves so seriously all the time which means we're not judging people anymore we see with Innocent perception and I love that James because there's a line in a course of Miracles that says innocence is wisdom for it is unaware of evil and evil does not exist that goes back to probation the innocent child is actually wiser than the adult in many ways is what this is pointing to the innocent child is closer to God in many ways than the adult with a big huge ego and the belief in separation because a child is not yet aware of the nature of evil yet and that's actually wisdom from uh from God's perspective because God doesn't see evil in the sense of like a second power that exists evil is just a Corruption of something that's true or good and so children don't see evil which makes them wiser than than adults much of the time in that respect so Jesus is painting this picture of like this is the kingdom like see how children are always happy and free and having fun and and carefree and trusting you got to be like that and that might be the hardest Kingdom manifestation principle James that Jesus ever taught all right again you put a little Jewish Israeli kid and a little Palestinian kid you're two years old whatever they're just going to play and love each other yeah they don't have attachment to uh all of this conflict and whatnot it's pure pure innocent love so when we can see there's no racism with kids or there's no there's no hatred like that so when we can see our brothers and sisters like we're a bunch of toddlers we we'll be entering the kingdom well it's funny you say that because um growing up as a kid in San Jose when I was between five and eight somewhere in there um my best friend was a a black kid in my neighborhood named Henry we would play together every single day on my trampoline we'd play video games we'd play Batman and stuff and uh it wasn't until like a few years into our friendship that one day Henry told me he was like hey did you know that that white people used to enslave black people and I sort of laughed in his face as a kid because I was projecting my innocence on him and I was like oh give me a break Henry you think white people enslaves black people no one would ever do something like that and I fully did not believe him and so I asked my parents that day I was like Mom Dad Henry said that white people used to enslave black people that's not true right and they were like well actually that is true and they told me about Abraham Lincoln and the civil rights movement and all this stuff and I was abhor as a kid I still remember the feeling in my body of like I can't believe this is true like this is the most horrible thing I've ever heard how could people do this to one another because as a kid you're born innocent you're born pure and so Jesus is saying be like that be pure minded be innocent in your heart See No Evil will judge no evil that's the kingdom of heaven so true man and it's it's great to just remember like even when you see an adult like see the the child the inner child in them like that's a great yeah thought experiment like when you if you feel yourself getting angry or whatever if you see that that there's just like an innocent child deep within there it it can help you extend ex extend understanding and love to them because many people who are are lost or fallen into the negative are deeply traumatized people you know and you can see that inner child who is abused or bullied or whatever happened to them and uh you could extend compassion try to help them as opposed to judging them and falling into that judgment momentum yep because if you're able to love somebody else's inner child you're literally practicing the ability to love your own inner child you know the giving is the receiving what you give is the measure you get back Jesus said in Luke 6:37 there's so much spiritual practicality to following these teachings that Jesus laid out so to round out the last one we have Matthew 19:23 and Jesus said to his disciples truly I say to you only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven and this is a great one too James because it's pointing to the fact that the more in invested we are in the world of form and somebody who has lots of wealth usually not always but usually is heavily invested in the 3D in the physical world and looking for fulfillment with more money more Investments more dividends more possessions bigger yacht bigger house Jesus is saying look if you're so entangled in the world you'll never see the kingdom because why as Jesus said my Kingdom's not of this world so you're not going to see it here or there like a physical thing happening or coming the kingdom is within you and so to know the kingdom within you means you can't be so transfixed with things outside of you it's a big Point yeah and it reminds me of the meek will inherit the earth and you can't serve two masters like that's it's not that there's a intrinsic issue with wealth it's the focus of your mind you're you're focusing on materialism as opposed to righteousness well there's a there's a really great book and I'm blanking on the name of bit but it's a book that parallels the teachings of Jesus Buddha Krishna and LSU and it's like literally like side by side and you see the way each teacher taught these spiritual principles that are Timeless Eternal truths and if you read the bab about Gita for example you'll see Krishna just banging on about non-attachment and you can't know God if you're attached to the world of form Buddha famously said to his disciples you suffer because you desire and not just any kind of Desire but physical worldly desire is what Buddha meant so this was Jesus's way of teaching the same exact principle it's very difficult Jesus said for a rich person to enter the kingdom you could sort of just substitute that James for saying it's very difficult for a person with lots of attachments to enter the kingdom because like you said wealth can be used for the Kingdom of Heaven as well wealth can be used for good to be of service and Jesus admonished his wealthy disciples like um Nicodemus and so forth to give their money to the poor and and be generous with it so it's not that money is inherently bad or being rich is inherently makes it hard to enter the kingdom it's your mindset it's it's your attachments are you using money as a way to get fulfillment then it's an attachment and that's what Jesus said makes it difficult for you to access the kingdom that is at hand right is is that wealth opening your heart or closing it I think that comes down to that great question yeah perfect way to put it well now we're going to look into some of Jesus's Parables yeshua's Parables that further illuminate this topic first we have the parable of the leaven the Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flow until it was all leaven Matthew 13:33 what's your take on this Aon well I think it's a great analogy from the the master of analogies and Parables Yeshua because I think another um another translation of that says says a 60 lbs Jesus said it's like a little bit of yeast that goes through 60 lb of dough um it's this picture of like this enormous amount of dough and this just a little grain of yeast how could it ever or leaven how could it ever make its way through all this dough they said ah but the kingdom is like that because when somebody bakes bread that's what they do they take a little bit of leavon sprinkle it on the dough and they just keep swirling it around and eventually it fills through the entire dough so it's like the kingdom can be spread infinitely you just need to sew a little bit of a seed in somebody and no matter how far from God they are that seed is going to go to work and actually Jesus tells many other Parables about sewing seeds as we know but um it's just a great picture of like don't underestimate the power of your demonstrating the kingdom it could just be one thing that changes somebody and it gets into them right and starts to work its way through the whole dough through their whole beingness they start to become transformed by this uh Kingdom of Heaven that they saw exemplified in your love in your kindness in your service were always sewing seeds like a farmer Jesus said that's why he said it's like a farmer who SWS a seed it doesn't mean you have to be consciously thinking about who can I sow a seed today does that person need need a seed let me preach to him that's not what he's talking about he's saying when you're in the kingdom when you're living and embodying the kingdom you're like a farmer sewing seeds you're just throwing seeds everywhere and they fall where they may good soil bad soil it's not a to you but your your embodiment of these principles is how the kingdom is spread across the Earth yeah a small act of kindness can go so far and I think we've all been around someone who just exudes so much love that it can like change you and lift your mood so the power of just going around with the the love of God in your heart is so contagious it is so contagious I mean I remember when we first started hanging out eron if I had a a rough day at work we would meet for a lift and you would just be exuding so much love one we link up that it was totally contagious and I would get back and I just wanted to like be of service you know just being around you so it's never forget the power that you have just by smiling at people just by being kind I mean it's the smallest the smallest Ripple can cause momentous change yeah James the image coming to mind as you're saying that is the famous iconic photo from Tian Square where the the man with the suitcase stands in front of the tanks to kind of protest and block them from moving it was like this extremely simple Act of courage and bravery to say no no violence you know no Conquest peace stop this just a simple demonstration and that photo made its way around the world right and and changed the hearts of millions of people and helped people to understand what was going on there so yeah you can never underestimate one single Kingdom act we might call it yeah that's a great Point Aaron because love isn't always cutesy and comfy and lovey doy sometimes it's very tough and it can it can almost hurt in a way at first but it's serving a greater purpose a Redemptive purpose love can be harsh love can be blunt love will do whatever it needs to do to get the message across and help the person so when somebody's you know out of their mind making huge errors and mistakes and they're just they don't have the awareness to see it love will happily slap them around a bit to wake them up to shake them out of their delusion right I that's also loving so we can't yeah we can't put any Borders or boundaries on what love should look like we just have to be its conduit and let it flow through US yeah I don't know if I've told you the story but I used to be about 90 pounds heavier than I am now and I was just I was just on a bad Road of overeating and eating unhealthy and finally a friend of mine said to me he was like bro you look terrible like I'm worried about you you look like crap and I was so offended I was like you're fat too dude who are you to talk to me and I I went home and I looked in the mirror and I was just like man he's right and I I probably would have continued on with that trajectory for a long time if he hadn't done a pattern interrupt and I hated him for about an hour I legitimately hated him but it was a profound Act of service and love to me I I ended up losing 90 pounds and starting a Fitness business he did the greatest favor in the world to me that see he just sewing seeds is all he's doing yeah you're like I can't believe he said that the next day you're at the gym doing burpees and running on the treadmill I like I'm fasting for a week screw this guy I'm gonna fast for a week prove you wrong moving along we have the parable of the hidden treasure the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid again and in his Joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field Matthew 1344 and then we have the pearl of great price again the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls when he found one of Great Value he went away and sold everything he had and bought it Matthew 13:45 so you see here the parallel to his teaching we pointed out of it's difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom he's saying the same thing here in this Parable in these Parables that when you see the value of the Kingdom of Heaven of of God's reality God's law being manifested on Earth that that's the whole reason for existing that's the whole reason why we're here and the whole reason to follow Jesus when you see the kingdom like Jesus saw it you're willing to give up up anything to possess it and he tells that in two Parables the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price meaning the Kingdom of Heaven is like this most valuable thing that somebody found and it captured their heart and they said what do I got to get rid of to have this that's the attitude for Spiritual Enlightenment is what do I need to get rid of to have God to have more of the Kingdom of Heaven in my in my life in my experience what am I holding on to preventing me from having it and the selling your possessions in that way it means like the getting rid of your attachments to be to be free to be liberated from the shackles of the world and therefore be able to apprehend the kingdom Jesus was always showing us this parallel very much James like the Dead Sea Scrolls the the two paths the way of life and the way of death or the diday the way there's two paths the way of life the way of death this is why Jesus's followers call themselves followers of the way and why Jesus said I'm the way the truth and the life whoever believes in me will not case death will not die it was always a spiritual life and a spiritual death these are the only options we have and to be attached to the world of form which is always passing away right it's always corrupt and transient nothing in the world of form lasts well it's like you're attached to death to what is dying but on the other side of the polarity Heaven the the spiritual realm is eternal and everything in uh the Kingdom of Heaven is eternal unchanging and self-sufficient so to place your heart there is the smarter move Jesus is saying that's building your house on the rock that's placing your treasure in heaven rather than the sinking Sands of material objects and worldly pleasure there's just no fulfillment there we've all tried it we've all chased things and and chased outcomes and gotten them been fulfilled and then still left wanting the next day I'll even give this example sometimes James of like maybe yesterday was your birthday you know and everyone at yourth birthday party took the mic went around the room and said something they love about you you know I just love James's Pure Heart he's so pure-hearted and you're you're sitting there like oh this is wonderful look at all this approval and acceptance I'm getting and even though you got two hours straight of approval from people you wake up the next day and your ego wants it all over again isn't that interesting right the ego is insatiable yes and that's why Jesus said don't place your trust there lastly we have the parable of the wheat and the tears the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who SED good seed in his field but while everyone was sleeping his enemy came and Seed weeds among the wheat and went away when the wheat sprouted and bore grain then the weeds also appeared the servants came to the owner and said sir didn't you seow good seed in your field where then did the weeds come from he replied an enemy has done this the servants asked do you want us to go and pull them up no he answered because while you are pulling the weeds you may uproot the wheat with them let both grow together until they harvest at that time I will tell the Harvesters first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned then gather the wheat and bring it to my barn Matthew 13:24 I remember James being like 13 or 14 and you know I want to be a preacher one day like my dad and I'm reading the Bible like I always do and I came across this Parable and I'm like if I'm a preacher how do I break this down and I tried so hard to figure out the meaning of this Parable at 14 and like I just couldn't figure out a way that I would ever explain this to somebody but you know half a lifetime later or another full lifetime later I can clearly see the meaning which is Jesus is teaching us to have spiritual discernment and there's really a lot of ways there's a lot of symbolism in here I see a lot of the conversation we have on Paul's teaching Paul's gospel the way it corrupted and contaminated Jesus's gospel no faith alone apart from Works Jesus Jesus is like no you'll be judged according to your Works four times how many times in the New Testament do I need to tell you this you will be judged according to your Works Paul's like no no no no we're saved by faith alone apart from works and it's it's the wheat and the Terrors right it's like Paul has good intentions no one's saying that Paul is this intentionally evil deceiver but he is teaching a different gospel and it's being swn among the wheat and just now like right now in human history are we finally un packing the wheat from the tears after 2,000 years of this cross-contamination where a gospel from another man named Paul who never met Jesus has been preached for 2,000 years as if it were Jesus's gospel as if the tears and the wheat were the same thing only after they've grown and sprouted enough Jesus says can you discern the difference and actually pull up the tears and leave the wheat it's like that spiritually as well like when we're growing and developing spiritually we don't always have the awareness we need to see things and correct things and so we need to trust God and say look God will reveal to me this truth I need to see where the corruption is where the blind spot is God will show me in due time for now I'm just going to keep growing the wheat letting the wheat grow and at a certain point once I see the wheat which is the truth yeah when I know the truth intimately enough then the false will be much easier to Spot while we're developing and immature spiritually that distinction is not always so easy this whole conversation about manifesting the kingdom actually goes back to the Old Testament because Jesus is actually pulling from something uh that he had in mind from his own Jewish tradition he wasn't completely inventing this idea out of whole cloth although the way that we see it is that Jesus was very much sort of finishing the painting that Moses began to paint um you know 1500 years earlier we often say that we do believe that Jesus is the prophet or was the prophet that Moses foretold in Deuteronomy 18:15 where Moses basically says hey there's going to be a Prophet come out coming after me who will essentially finish what I started he will pick up where I left off and so we see Jesus as doing that for sure that Jesus was trying to bring the Jews back to the original Mosaic law which was the Ten Commandments alone that mosus brought down from Mount Si right and Jesus said both of these are all summed up in just love God love people so that's the that's the ideal that Jesus was trying to Reform Judaism back to the original Law of Moses and so what would you say James in terms of what was Jesus really pulling from in the Old Testament where did Jesus get this idea from that God already has a perfect Kingdom and wants to manifest it right now not in the future but here and now where do we get that from in the Old Testament Jesus was giving us the tools to transform our own Consciousness so we could live in harmony with this identic ideal this is the Kingdom of Heaven God clearly has an ideal in the Bible there's this meta narrative from the Garden of Eden to the prophecies in Isaiah about a world without violence a world where truth Reigns Supreme compassion love all the Divine attributes and Oneness there was the state of Oneness in the Garden of Eden man man was participating in the divine nature with God as as an image of God and really it's one we started seeing lack myON golden says that the first sin was seeing lack but we're in a world of perfect abundance then we start focusing on the one thing we can't have like you say Aaron this took us away from our Oneness with God into separation so Jesus all of his teachings are pointing us back to the Garden of Eden a world of pure love pure Harmony there's no violence there's not even forgiveness because there's nothing to forgive so we have to we have to forgive to get back into that place where there is no longer anything to forgive and then we fast forward to the end so the garden of Eden's the beginning God's ideal at the beginning and then God's ideal at the end is are these prophecies in Isaiah where the lion shall lay with the lamb and the snake shall eat dust and the child the child um will lay with the serpent or hang out I forget the exact quote but it's basically saying that all species will live in perfect love and harmony and there will be no V violence on my Holy Mountain that's the Declaration from God and I think the Holy Mountain is Unity Consciousness this is the future Garden of Eden well to your point James you can see why Jesus would have been so Ang angrily in opposition to the temple sacrifice system because he's trying to bring the identic ideal back the Kingdom of Heaven back to Earth and teaching people how to manifest it and in Isaiah it says there will be no Bloodshed on my Holy Mountain and in the Holy Temple there's nothing but Bloodshed and so no wonder he went in there and said you've turned my father's house into a den of violent thieves pites in Hebrew that's the the word Jeremiah used that Jesus is quoting from so I mean this is the big difference to me James between Christian eschatology and Christ's esy is that Jesus's eschatology yeshua's eschatology was bringing the Heaven to Earth and that the endend of days would be when we finally manifest the kingdom here but it became Paul's religion of let's get the hell out of here this place is evil and wicked run by the devil and we got to just abandon it and go to heaven Jesus did not teach escapism Jesus taught manifestation Everything Jesus taught his teachings on salvation were all different ways to manifest the Kingdom Here and Now And so there's this there's this big thing that Paul taught which is this second coming of Christ idea that Paul was very clear about and this is what to me makes Paul without question the first Gnostic who ever lived the first Christian Gnostic is that Paul taught his followers his readers that Jesus was coming back in his lifetime to judge the wicked and take all the Believers out of this place and he said you know we'll be caught up in the air a trumpet will sound Christ shall appear and we all be transformed into these spiritual bodies it's this very Gnostic idea of escaping the bad Earth plane to get to the good heaven plane and I'm going to read you the quote from Paul himself in first Thessalonians 4 and whenever I point this out to Christian friends that Paul is the definition of a false prophet because all of his end time prophecies utterly failed completely they'll say no no no he he wasn't saying it was going to happen in in his lifetime he just was saying in some at some point Jesus will return uhuh first Thessalonians 4 disagrees with you let's read it Paul says for this we declare to you by the word of the Lord so Paul is prophesying that's what a prophecy is you speak for the Lord for this we declare to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive who are left until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have died so we have three qualifying statements from Paul that put it directly in Paul's lifetime there is no mistaking what Paul is saying here he is telling everybody this is happening in our lifetime he even in other passages tells people hey if you're a slave you don't need to worry about getting free because Jesus come back any minute now if you're out of work you don't need get a new job Jesus coming back if you're going to get divorced don't worry about it Jesus is coming back he was telling people about practical life situations not really mattering because we're in the end of T end of times at any moment now Jesus could come back and suck us into the clouds so he says right here we who are alive that's Paul and everybody reading Paul's letter to the Thessalonians and then he says who are left until the coming of the Lord so we the ones who are alive and will be left until Jesus returns a second time will by no means precede those who have died so this was Paul's idea that the dead in Christ will rise first Paul says so Paul believed that the dead Christians if there were many at that point um they would be resurrected from their graves first and caught up in the air because they died first so you know got to get in line and wait in the queue for heaven so the dead rise first and then we who are alive so he's giving us three qualifying statements here no doubt at all this is happening in our lifetime and he goes on for the Lord himself with a cry of command with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet will descend from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise first there it is then we who are alived who are left will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air and so we will be with the Lord forever so he qualifies it again at the end and again we who are alive right now as I'm writing this who are left right now will be caught up in the air so the reason I stress that is to show you that Paul is a false prophet none of this ever happened uh none of this happened in Paul's lifetime for sure and it sure hasn't happened in the last 2,000 years at any point but Paul is the reason Christianity has this escapism eschatology that we've got to get the hell out of here any minute now hopefully Jesus will come back and I was told this in church James from the time I was a kid and I have palpable memories like what I felt in my body type memories being 678 in church and being told hey kids just remember Jesus could come back any moment so be on your best behavior because he's coming on the clouds and I was repeatedly told James by virtually every Christian adult in my life that Jesus is definitely coming back in your lifetime and they weren't so sure about if it's their lifetime because you know I'm getting older and it hasn't happened yet so maybe it's the Next Generation but I mean this is a rampant commonplace in Christianity that we're all just kind of Clinging On to the telephone pole waiting for Jesus to come back hoping for a dear life that we should make it through this evil World a few more days until the Savior rescues us this my friends is textbook gnosticism and marianismo was the first heretical movement that the Protestant Church opposed the Catholic Church opposed because they said oh this is all bad you know marcion says that we're the Earth is bad and Heaven's good and we're trying to escape and get to heaven and they fought against these ideals you know in the F uh late late 1 2 Century in the late second to the third Century the the Catholic church is fighting against the gnostics on these ideals but that's because marcion was the biggest fan and champion of Paul who ever lived to that point all that this guy had were all 13 of Paul's uh purported Epistles right think 10 of them actually and a copy of the Gospel of Luke that was marcion's Bible and marcion went preaching what Paul said here in 1 Thessalonians 4 saying hey guys I'm just going to take Paul's words a little bit farther because I know what Paul really meant the Old Testament God is the Devil in Disguise the Demi urge was the name they gave it um Jesus coming back to suck us out of here because the Earth is evil and run by the demiurge and so the Catholic Church fought against marcion and what happens James when you fight something what's how's the phrase go again what you fight you strengthen there it is the Catholic Church fought Paul via marcion's gnosticism so hard that they actually ended up adopting The Three core tenants of gnosticism as their own because what they were trying to do was they were trying to take Paul away from marcion so the Catholic church had to reinterpret all of Paul's crazy Looney Tune prophecies that never happened and they had to interpret them their own way to say oh no marcion got it wrong here's what Paul meant it's called apology etics right and so they actually ended up adopting The Three core tenants of gnosticism the belief in Duality Earth bad Heaven good which really goes back to platonism the idea that Plato first proposed that Earth is this bad realm Heaven's the good realm we got to get out of here to go there that's Duality that's textbook gnosticism and textbook protestantism right the second core tenant is the idea that we are uh Spiritual Beings trapped in physical bodies and you have this dichotomy between flesh and spirit we're trying to liberate the spirit from the bondage of the Flesh and Paul would bang on about this in his Epistles right flesh and spirit flesh bad Spirit good what I don't want to do I do because my flesh makes me do it Paul kind of used the flesh nature to scapegoat all of his sins say well I can't help it because I have this flesh the sin nature of My Flesh and isn't that what Christianity preaches today just like Paul I don't see anywhere Jesus taught that but I digress and the third tenant of gnosticism is the idea of secret knowledge and this is usually the only tenant Christians know of is gnosticism um where it comes from is the idea that the gnostics were being heavily persecuted by the Catholic Church many times to the death and so they had to keep their teaching secret from the Orthodoxy or they were in big trouble so it wasn't that they were like hey it's secret knowledge that really saves you it's not that simple it was like hey we can't let the Catholic Church hear about our teachings or they'll come Witch Hunt us so they kept it in their group in their Community but what's more secret knowledge than what Paul taught for crying out loud Paul literally calls his gospel the mystery hidden from the beginning of the ages and he says behold I tell you a secret we shall not all sleep we'll be caught up in the air the trumpet will sound and those who confess Jesus as the Lord and Savior will be caught up in the air and transformed it's like what's more secret knowledge than that like James especially when the master never said anything about that yeah but that's neither here nor there James James can you tell me do you think anybody of their own accord without being told this by someone else would ever arrive at the conclusion that the the true secret of the universe and going to heaven is to confess Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior believe in your heart that he was raised from the dead and then you'll be caught up in the air in the Clouds Of Heaven and the trumpet will sound and then you go to heaven isn't that impossible that someone could arrive at that conclusion without Paul or somebody else telling them right yeah no one in no mayori in in New Zealand 500 years ago would ever come to that conclusion but they potentially could come to the conclusion I'm sure many did that loving your neighbor and being kind and compassionate and loving God and loving neighbor that that is a beneficial thing to do that's exactly the point many people have come to the conclusion people of all religions cultures and races we all come to the conclusion that life is really just all about loving each other and being loving because God is love and if you can be loving you've really done it all all that the Universe asks you to do people come to this conclusion through near-death experiences through you know Rock Bottom moments in their life through any kind of religious conversion people come to this conclusion naturally and innately all the time because it's built into us right the law of God is within us Deuteronomy 30:1 and is Paul knowledge within us James that we have to confess a certain Creed and believe a certain thing and then we'll be caught up in the air this is gnosticism I do not care how you try to slice it or apologetics your way out of it Paul is the first Gnostic and that's where we get the escapism culture in Christianity so what we want to really emphasize in this this episode of the Jesus way podcast is we got to get rid of this idea of waiting for any reason for a future salvation a future coming of Jesus Jes Jesus didn't teach this stuff Jesus taught us to manifest the Kingdom right now and I can hear some apologists probably thinking no no no Jesus prophesied about this apocalypse coming and of course yes we agree because Jesus in our opinion was definitely part of the Dead Sea scroll group or emerged from them in some way and there's no doubt they were a very apocalyptic group but here's the big difference is that the apocalypticism of the Jewish Christians of the Dead Sea scroll group Jesus this whole sect Nazarene Essen eion it was about God judging the the sons of Darkness it's called in the in the Dead Sea Scrolls the wicked generation that had corrupted the law of Moses corrupted the temple all of this they they believed as Jesus believed in in the synoptics that God was going to judge this wickedness and get rid of it so that the sons of Light the Kingdom of Heaven could be manifested on earth Jesus never preached about this escaping idea of like don't worry guys God's going to come judge the evil suck us out of here up into heaven and then we're good and then we'll be safe that was not the apocalypse Jesus was pointing to he was pointing to the destruction of the temple as God's final condemnation of the animal sacrificial system that had corrupted Mosaic law and he was saying look when it when it comes flee to the mountains get out of here it's going to be really ugly and whether that prophecy was attributed to Jesus after 70 AD and he never really said that we can't know but if Jesus really did prophesy that then he clearly got it basically Point foro correct so when you look at what Jesus talked about in terms of his apocalypticism it is nothing like what Paul talked about of escaping the Earth realm Jesus was all about manifesting the kingdom in the earth realm and he rebuked people for even suggesting that it should be otherwise when when people believed he was a physical Messiah a davidic king coming to set up an Earthly Kingdom he rebuked them for that no my kingdom is not of this world there's no mistaking Jesus's intention here and so we'll we'll close the podcast Now by going through kind of what we did last week of Jesus's salvation principles or practices and we want to show you guys how every single one of them is a different way that Jesus was actually teaching us how to manifest the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth awesome before we get into that you just made me think of something super interesting there is no utility in Paul's Universe this universe where where Earth is basically an escape room where God's like we lost that world to Satan Satan's got it I just got to like zap my people out of there so we could go do our own thing in heaven what what is the utility what's the whole purpose of God creating Point yeah what's the point but in the the Paradigm of Yeshua it makes perfect sense God created matter and then humans and we can live in alignment with God's laws and through that process we actually es uh Elevate matter to the Divine we build the Kingdom of Heaven here that is a beautiful Vision that makes sense rationally and reasonably not Paul's hellish escape room it's such a Perfect Analogy dude imagine uh Paul's eschatology and Jesus's eschatology if they were like video games so to speak and in Paul's video game it's like hey man I'm playing this new game you should check it out you okay cool you grab the controller you start playing you're like so what's the the point of this game friend's like oh uh this guy named Jesus is going to come back and suck everybody out of here and so your character just needs to like avoid danger for as long as possible and then your character gets sucked out of the game yeah you got to press ABA that's the code that means you believe in Jes so just press that and we're we're good you'll get we'll win yeah and then your character in the video game is just kind of running around the video game map trying to avoid danger and just kill time until Jesus sucks your character out of the video game like what a shitty video game who who would want to play that game but then you go to Jesus's video game and it's all about the gradual manifestation of the Kingdom getting better and better every day at every level becoming more and more Christlike you know the like that's a fun video game that's the way all bestselling video games are created is that it's a progressive evolution of your character getting better and better gaining more skills and abilities going to harder levels of the game it's always Progressive because that's what keeps us interested and participating and that's exactly what Jesus was doing in the first century makes perfect sense I choose that game I'll play that game any day we'll have to make a Jesus way video game bro let's do it well speaking of the video game let's learn how to play Erin you want to take us through some of yeshua's greatest teachings that really can show us the way how we bring the kingdom to Earth well the first place to start is forgiveness and let's look at forgiveness through a bit of a different lens now as we've laid out this philosophy that Jesus's whole mission and purpose was to manifest the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth by teaching everybody else how to do it because obviously one man can't do it by himself well what part does forgiveness play in manifesting the Kingdom well if you remember that the whole purpose of bringing the kingdom is to start living like you're in the Kingdom already so in the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven let's say there's no conflict is there there's no judgment there's no one person judging another person and so when you judge someone you are stepping out of the kingdom in that sense and so to step back into the kingdom or to bring the kingdom forgiveness right forgive others don't judge them because in heaven nobody judges anybody right there you can see it's it's the perception right if you want to be in the Kingdom of Heaven you've got to see citizens of the Kingdom wherever you look for example if I want to go to Tokyo James and I get on a random plane saying I hope I go to Tokyo and I just buy a plane ticket I end up in well let's not say where I go I end up somewhere and I'm looking around and I just see uh citizens of Argentina everywhere I look Argentinian citizens everywhere do I think I'm in Tokyo definitely not right I would only think I'm in Tokyo when everywhere I look I see citizens of Tokyo around me now I know I'm in Tokyo this is the analogy we're working with is if you want to live in the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus lived in and taught from you've got to see citizens of the Kingdom meaning do not judge people for their outer appearances as Jesus said see the Christ in everyone love everyone like their Jesus because as Jesus said when you don't love them you didn't love me because he saw Kingdom Consciousness he saw citizens of the Kingdom everywhere he looked and that's why loving others and forgiveness is such a sacred practice to Jesus's gospel because you're literally taking yourself out of Heaven every time you judge somebody and see them as a sinner a heretic a new Ager agostic or whatever label you cast on them you just took yourself out of the Kingdom of Heaven why because no such judgments exist like that in the Kingdom so Jesus is teaching us this is what heaven is like my friends yeah and it reminds me of Emanuel swedenborg one of the greatest Mystics of the 18th century love swedenborg it's incredible if if you haven't looked into his stuff there's some really amazing content on YouTube but anyways he said Heaven is basically your Vibe attracting your tribe and so is is hell so Heaven is a place of where people who practice nonviolence and forgiveness and compassion they go to a place with other Souls who have the same beliefs and practices and what is hell a bunch of people who are unforgiving attracting to a place so you're around a bunch of unforgiving hateful people and what does that lead to hell it's a hellish experience everyone is acting hellishly so I like to think of it as your Vibe attracting your tribe and if you want more if you want to be forgiven you need to forgive if you want to live a life of Peace you need to give peace to others it's a metaphysical law yep well I mean I think one of the best passages we haven't touched on is I think it's in Mark 9 where Jesus says if your hand causes you to sin cut it off it's better for you to enter the Kingdom of Heaven maimed than to have both arms and be thrown into the fires of gehenna the valley of Hanam so Jesus is saying better to get rid of what's what's offending you or or tempting you to sin and then you can be in the kingdom of heaven then to keep both of your hands meaning keep the Temptation in your life and you're living in Hell on Earth right gehenna was hell on Earth that was his analogy for hell on Earth it was the village garbage dump essentially of Jerusalem where the trash was the criminals bodies would be thrown to be burned lepers were only allowed to hang out there and they couldn't go into the city it was a place of desolation and suffering and death and so it was Jesus's metaphor for hell on Earth so you you obviously can't go to the afterlife heaven with one hand chopped off there's no suffering in in heaven right there's no physical body in heaven so if Jesus says better to have one hand maimed and enter the king of heaven right there we know he's not talking about a future destination a future afterlife location somewhere in the clouds in the cosmos it was a right now State of Consciousness state of being and he's saying if something's causing you to sin and not be able to access that state of the Kingdom then get rid of that Temptation better for you to be without Temptation than with it and be in Hell on Earth so that's another powerful um parallel there but the other one I want to point out James is repentance we said that's the first pillar of Jesus's gospel how does repentance help us manifest the kingdom well as we know sin means missing the mark of Divine Law the law of one when you do harm you have missed the mark and that's what a sin is so when you sin you're separating yourself from God because remember sin and evil is just a provation it's a corruption or a moving away from good so God never moves away from us God is the all self shining luminescent Sun that never sets God is shining on everyone eternally the the rain falls on the just and the unjust right so we move away from God not the reverse and we do that when we sin when we violate Divine Law by doing harm so what do we say gets us back into alignment with Divine Law repentance so this is how repentance reflects the Kingdom of Heaven is that there is no separation from God in the kingdom and so when we separate ourselves from God whether accidentally or consciously through sin Jesus just says repent turn your heart back to God change your thinking and you're back in the Kingdom again why because the kingdom is the place where there is no separation from God that's the identic ideal right James that says they walked in the garden in the cool of the day with the Lord and they knew the Lord directly that's the Oneness that God has always intended for us to enjoy so repentance takes us out of separateness which doesn't exist in Heaven into the awareness of our Oneness with God which is what heaven is of course a miracle says the Kingdom of Heaven is the awareness of perfect Oneness and the knowledge that there is nothing else no evil no second power it's a huge point so Jesus also always talked about helping the needy it was really one of the main pillars of his gospel so how does that play into manifesting the kingdom of heaven so all of these practices Jesus taught all these Commandments he gave us are they're meant to be reflections of the Kingdom right so it's our way of saying this is what heaven is like and so we reflect that likeness by doing this and so In Heaven There Is No Lack right there's no there's no unmet need in heaven and so we reflect the abundance of Heaven by helping the needy it was it's there's a spiritual law underlying Jesus saying uh feed the poor sell all you possess to give to the poor he isn't just saying like you've got to just go around proving that you care about poor people or something it's like what's the underlying philosophy here is that in heaven in God's ideal there is no unmet need There Is No Lack and so when you see somebody who's lacking feed them help them clothe them bring them in give them what they need because that's a reflection of Heaven W beautifully said man and it's also goes back to remembering that god is perfect and we live in a perfect universe so if you're experiencing lack or pain we can understand that that in a perfect universe that lack or pain has to play a purpose it's in service of of God's incredible plan for the universe and for your life so something I like to do when I'm in pain is just go and sit and ask God what is this pain supposed to be teaching me because when you do that it takes you out of victim Consciousness into okay this pain is here there must be a reason there's always a reason but simply asking what this lack is is supposed to show me about my life and God's nature and the answer will always come when you ask asking you shall receive so uh seeing lack is an opportunity really yeah and you know James we often say that we don't like disagree with everything Paul said we think Paul said some good stuff too and this is one of them that Paul definitely got correct Romans 8:28 God works all things together for good to those who love him really what that means is like to those who trust him and put their faith in God right your love for God is shown by your trust and faith in God and so of course a miracle says similarly all things are lessons that God would have me learn so you you either believe God is in full control of God's universe or you don't right you either believe God is omnipotent all power or you don't and if you say you believe God is all powerful in full control then you can never believe that something happening to you is just bad with no redeeming quality no lesson no Silver Lining nothing to be gained that's victim Consciousness right and that's what prevents us from seeing the lesson God is offering us so one of the biggest philosophies that I've taught for years and that is part of the Jesus way philos philosophy is to learn from our life lessons that God is always teaching us through our life and if we meet life with that trust and acceptance of what happens that everything comes from God in one way or another then we open our spiritual perception to say oh this is God teaching me to be more patient more forgiving more trusting more confident there's some lesson behind every experience you have and I think this teaching from Jesus reflects that very well the next one we want to go to is the idea of Jesus teaching to love your enemies bless those who persecute you turn the other cheek go the extra mile Jesus taught enemy love um all throughout the synoptics and so what does that reflect well in heaven there's no enemies are there there's definitely no war in heaven no Strife no conflict because there's no enemies in heaven so Jesus is saying in order to reflect the truth of heaven love your enemies bless those who persecute you do good to them and he said by doing this you actually Heap burning coals on their head I love that phrase and I think that's Jesus's way of saying you depolarize their negative energy right when when you're being rude to somebody and they return kindness you get coals heaped on your head don't you you're like oh like it feels bad in your body and it just like forces you to be kind you're like thanks I appreciate it and then you feel like the in the situation that's what we can do to anybody who's operating from that judgment that frequency of judgment or separation is we don't return evil for evil as Jesus said we overcome evil with good we bless those who persecute us and I do this every single day on Instagram with with angry Protestant Christians who you know come at me for all different kind of reasons and they'll all almost always start off with all kinds of AD hominum attacks you Pagan Gnostic New Age evil Satan worshipper Son Of Satan all this stuff and I come back and sayhe brother or sister I appreciate what you shared here's what I think and I always end with blessings and I'm trying to show them I'm not your enemy sorry and almost without fail the the character of their tone completely shifts and all of a sudden they're being respectful and they're being polite they're not throwing out ad homonyms anymore this stuff really works you guys so that's what Jesus is really teaching us here in these different Sermon on the Mount statements he's making the entire Sermon on the Mount James is Jesus teaching how to establish the identic ideal isn't it yeah they absolutely reflect the identic ideal and that's why I believe it's one of the greatest injustices in history how the Roman Empire perverted and inverted the teachings of Christ to become to make Christianity really a proar religion with Constantine painting crosses on the Shields and slaughtering his enemies and then using Christianity really as a vehicle for the expion of Empire and we see that very day I mean the vast majority of Christian conservatives in America supported the Iraq War where millions of innocent people died it really is outrageous and upsetting in many ways but hey it's up to us we can bring back this original ideal the identic ideal and the teachings of Jesus that's what we're called to do here this is to me is perhaps the most important teaching of Jesus of all because it's one of the most difficult when you see evil or people doing terrible things it is not easy to forgive them and turn the other cheek this is perhaps the most challenging but I think it Bears the most spiritual fruit you could only we could only make a peaceful Kingdom on Earth with this ideal with this concept like flowing through our veins and being we are we do not we do not see evil well that's a good point because forgiveness is hard until you understand what it really is what it really means to forgive someone uh this is the most common question I've been asked over the last five years I've been teaching A Course in Miracles is people will say well if I forgive someone I just have to let them walk all over me and things like that if I forgive someone that means I'm just saying no problem go murder people you know those kind of questions and I I get it I know where it's coming from but like surely our intuition tells us better right surely we all know that's not what forgiveness really means forgiveness is not a a passive acceptance of someone's evil Deeds it's not a agreeing with someone's decisions or behaviors in any way it has actually nothing to do with their behavior forgiveness is just refusing to hold somebody out of your heart for their behavior it's refusing to see somebody as unredeemable or you know un unsal in that way it's a refusal to cast somebody into hell in your mind say you're evil and you should be punished because you're bad we have to see again citizens of the kingdom and so if someone else is raping stealing murdering pillaging doing evil Deeds do you think that they know they're a citizen of the Kingdom obviously not but the thing is you can know it for them you can say you clearly forgot who you are as a son or a daughter of God and so you're wandering in the darkness as God has allowed you to do with free will but I know who you really are I have not forgotten that you are a son a daughter of God so I will forgive you for your actions as Jesus said for you know not what you do if someone does evil if someone does harm they're insane they don't know God they don't know truth they may say they do they may have Concepts in their brain but God isn't a concept in your brain God is love and that's all God Is So if someone is behaving unloving you have all the evidence you need to know they don't know God which means they don't know who they are so you can know it for them by forgiving them and refusing to hold their trespasses against them it doesn't mean you don't intervene when someone's doing harm of course you do that's loving it doesn't mean you say I accept and agree with you know stealing or whatever no we're not condoning sin in any way at all when we forgive we're saying God you're the judge God you're the one who knows all things not me so I'm not going to judge this person for their actions is if I know better than you you're already in control of your Universe you're already returning every consequence upon the person who needs it so I give all trust and and uh responsibility to you for this person's judgment I forgive them I will not hold that against them I will see the Christ in them no matter what that's all forgiveness is and so when you finally see forgiveness that way forgiveness for anybody is equally as easy it's it's almost L right because you're just going oh that person doesn't know who they are forgive them Lord they know not what they do that's all it means so so pragmatically speaking what could a righteous Society do through this Paradigm of forgiveness if say someone's a serial rapist or or a Serial M murderer what is the correct righteous forgiving way to handle someone who's a threat to society well what's the identic ideal it says there will be no Bloodshed on my Holy Mountain and I think what that really means metaphorically is there will be no harm on my Holy Mountain that's what God wants right so if someone's doing harm to anybody we can manifest the identic ideal by saying we're not going to allow you to do this harm anymore you have full free will to do whatever you want in God's universe but when you violate someone else's free will the law must violate yours in equal measure so if someone has violated the Free Will of another being by doing harm to them and serial rapist would obviously qualify as that then it's up to us as citizens of the Kingdom to say you have violated someone else's free will now we must violate yours we must prevent you from doing this and that's the reflection somebody needs to have when they're doing harm so a righteous society would absolutely sequester dangerous people in some kind of safe facility away from the public what a righteous Society wouldn't do is say screw you you evil scumbag rot in hell rot in prison for the rest of your life hope you die that's There's No Redemption in that model there's no glory that God gets There's No Redemption reconciliation or any of the things God wants Jesus said God is like a Good Shepherd that rejoices when even one sheep returns right God leaves the 99 to go after the one God wants the Redemption of everybody and as Jesus said is not willing that anyone should perish so we have to have that same mentality because that's the mentality of God in heaven so we would rehabilitate criminals James we would spend a lot of time and energy on how do we help this person see the error of their ways trauma therapy all kinds of Rehabilitation is possible we know this right we know how to rehabilitate people we just don't do it to prisoners because those are the people we've sort of ostracized in our mind as unredeemable unhelped you know there's nothing we can do to save them they're pure evil let him rot in prison and that my friends is not the identic ideal well said man and if anyone is the least of these it's a a Serial Criminal come on bro so I mean that's like that takes a big that takes a big heart to go help someone who's done terrible things but I believe that that is the the Crux of the Kingdom helping those who are are the least in the traditional terms of of a societal structure yeah the elderly children people in prison the home these are the least of these right and if our heart is not for them how can we say we're followers of Jesus so to round this out there's two more we want to touch on here another ideal for the kingdom of heaven or the identic ideal is that there is no violation of Divine Law and so this is why Jesus said if you love me keep my commands Commandments the one who has my Commandments and keeps them is the one that loves me and you are my friends my disciples if you do what I command you why do you call me Lord Lord and not do what I say Jesus was emphatic about this point right James over and over again how do I enter eternal life how do I enter eternal life keep the Commandments keep the Commandments that's because there is no violation of Divine Law in the Kingdom of Heaven so we have to practice that non-violation by practicing the teachings of Jesus keeping his Commandments to love your neighbor as yourself to forgive to be forgiven to repent and turn your heart to God by practicing every day keeping these Commandments we are bringing Heaven to Earth We're showing this is what heaven is like and it's it's that Levan right James if if I can show somebody what the Kingdom looks like through my life then I'm putting a little bit of Leaven in their dough and it may take a while but it's going to start working its way through the kingdom of Heaven is infectious and contagious when people see it everybody loves a person full of love and joy and nonviolence and peace these are the sages that we rever all through human history why because the sage is the one who's already living in the Kingdom of Heaven as Jesus was so true they're already living in it and that's why people rever them or and then the wicked are so triggered by those who are living in the Kingdom because they're living in the opposite Kingdom the kingdom of hell gehenna gehenna yeah last one here is that in the Kingdom of course we know there is no falsity no illusion no lie no deceit and so that's why Jesus in a number of passages admonishes us to tell the truth uh do not lie Jesus says let your yes be yes and your no be no Jesus is advocating for truthfulness and honesty right don't swear by God don't swear by Earth just tell the truth let your yes be yes let your no be no because in heaven nobody needs to swear by Heaven nobody needs to swear by God in heaven there's just truth so like unlike Paul who's always like I tell you before God I'm not lying I'm not lying always screaming at his his churches that he's not lying please believe me before God I swear I'm not lying Jesus is like no no no Paul just let your yes be yes let your no be no nobody screams at other people they're not lying in heaven nobody swears before God they're not lying you don't need to tell everybody that you're not lying when you're telling the truth because we all inherently know the truth defends itself the truth will validate me the truth will Redeem Me In the End truth can't be threatened truth can't be hidden it will come to light so when you're telling the truth you don't need to you don't need to promise swear by God make up big stories to convince people you know this is another identic ideal is that there's only truth in the Kingdom of Heaven so let your SPS let your know be know amen and Jesus is very clear that lying is the prominent characteristic of hassatan the adversary you know he says you belong to your father the devil and you want to carry out your father's desires he was a murderer from the beginning not holding to the truth for there is no truth in him when he lies he speaks his native language for he is a liar and the father of Lies so the negative polarity Jesus says it right here it's about killing and lying so if you want to move yourself away from the kingdom participate in killing and lying two really fast ways to do it lie and kill yeah that's a real good way to enter the kingdom of hell so g i I love that because Jesus is so clear about how what takes you away from the kingdom of heaven there well to that point let's end with this because again when he's asked asked in all three passages Mark 10:17 Matthew 19:16 and Luke 1818 Rabbi what must I do to inherit eternal life it took me a while to find this one James um and we're gonna unpack it as we close here because this is such a huge point that Jesus makes here that I missed for my whole life up until now basically the uh the profundity of Jesus's response so we know that Jesus says keep the Commandments right but then he actually lists the Commandments and he lists uh you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal and you shall not lie or bear false witness honor your father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself so we've touched on this before right that I think the first four Commandments are the love God and the last six are the love neighbor Commandments and so Jesus responds to the question how do I enter eternal life rabbi withing keep the love your neighbor Commandments I think that's pretty huge dude what is what is Jesus saying here to me James this goes back to our whole faith and works conversation like love God love people is a bit like faith and works meaning you'll never actually love anybody if you don't love God loving God is where it all starts and begins but on the other hand you can't say you love God and hate your neighbor as it says in first John right if you say you love God and hate your neighbor make yourself into a liar God is love that's what the Pharisees did they oh we love God so much and then we treat everyone like crap and Slaughter animals on the Altar and so Jesus wagged his big index finger at them and said you Hypocrites you you know burden people with all kinds of laws you won't even lift with one finger yourselves just so you can look all high and mighty and righteous Jesus did not like this right Jesus didn't like it when people were unloving towards one another and he always made a point about rebuking them for it so when he's asked how do I enter eternal life which is the Kingdom of Heaven he says keep the love your neighbor Commandments essentially and he lists them and then he ends by saying and love your neighbor as yourself so it's like if you didn't get it from the first six Commandments I listed let me just summarize it all for you don't lie don't steal don't kill don't commit adultery love your neighbor as yourself that's the way Jesus taught us to eternal life and that's important because why didn't he just list the love God Commandments you know love God don't have any Idols don't have a false um don't make any graven images keep the Sabbath why didn't he list those instead well because you already have L God again packaged in love neighbor if you're truly loving others your love for God's already covered nobody can love others if you don't love God because there's only one love God is love there's no other source of love so when you love someone you are essentially goding them you're giving them God right so that's why Jesus said say if you want to enter eternal life the Kingdom of Heaven that is now you got to live this thing you got to love I'm just laughing like you're in heaven I'm laughing because Pauline Christians will be like you expect us to keep the Commandments it's impossible so so you don't think you'll be able to not murder not commit adultery not steal and not bear false witness and honor your father and mother is is that too much I mean I think that's pretty reasonable to be honest with you is it too much to ask not to kill and commit adultery and steal and I mean is that too difficult for you I mean I think the real answer is that they believe that keep the Commandments means all 600 lurgical laws which we've covered at nauseum on this show so we won't labor that but that's the big point this is the words of the master right here you know he's he's being very clear right here about which which Commandments are matter for salvation without a doubt and so you know I guess this is the big Point as we close is that love God love people mirrors faith and works in that you cannot say you love God if you're hating others and if you're loving others we already know you love God it's faith and works right if you're doing the works of Faith nobody has to question if you have faith but if you're just going to church saying you have faith but you never actually do the works of faith sorry man you're blowing hot air it's just lip service and as Jesus quoted these people come near to me with their mouths but their hearts are far from me so if you want to make your heart close to God love who God loves serve who God serves serve who Jesus served the least of these and so we want to leave you with these two practical application steps for today's podcast on bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth as Jesus taught us number one practice forgiveness every day you guys this is the number one spiritual practice that there is in my opinion for True spiritual growth in progress I mean if you want to really experience spiritual growth such that you can look back for you know six months at the version of you six months ago and say wow I was a completely different person back then I was struggling with so many things that are not a struggle for me anymore I was hating people in my heart that I love and forgive now like if you want to actually experience tangible results forgiveness is the highest path you can tread I promise you this and there's a reason why Yeshua the Nazarene the Great Master emphasized forgiveness as being the primary point of his gospel message if you don't forgive you can't be forgiven and so if you want to grow spiritually remember increase in the Kingdom love and serve others right that's the gospel so every day we should practice loving others by forgiving them whatever our mind judges whatever the ego judges about somebody just forgive that thought say God forgive me for thinking that that is your holy child that is your beautiful Divine son or daughter and so I bless them God and actually this it's cool that we're doing this episode James because this month in 4 to you we do an Ascension challenge every month and this month is called the mental blessings challenge so maybe we add this to our practical steps today in order to train our mind mind to truly love our neighbor as ourselves like automatically every person I see I love them well we got to train that somehow and so we do this challenge in 4 to you where it's uh it's called the mental blessings challenge every person I see I'm going to send them a blessing intentionally in my mind whether it's something as simple as bless them Father bless them God let them have a I hope they have a great day or whatever you can send them a spiritual blessing you can say I love you in your mind or you can literally say I love their shoes I love their fashion sense I love their voice I love their hair you can just compliment something about them it doesn't really matter you're training your mind to bless people rather than judge them and you're creating that inertia in the opposite direction so that could be a really good complimentary practice to go along with forgiveness but when you notice a judgmental thought just forgive it and return a blessing in its in its place that's number one number two is practice non-judgment towards others non-judgment is the practice that prevents us from having to forgive right if you just practice developing a habit in your consciousness of being very averse to judging people in my experience James this uh this practice of being aware of your judgments and really making a concerted effort not to give into those thoughts it feels impossibly difficult at first because the ego is running on autopilot it's always spitting out judgments right that's the dev devil on my shoulder the the sin nature is the ego but once you commit yourself to this practice and let's be honest the only way somebody would ever commit themselves to a practice like forgiveness and non-judgment is if they're inspired by the the Gospel of Jesus the Jesus way and so if you're watching the show clearly you are here's what I want to encourage you with this will seem very difficult at first because really you're just trying to change your understanding of what forgiveness means and what non-judgment means ego tries to Gaslight You by saying well if you don't judge people you're just approving of all their misdeeds you can't approve of their wrongdoing of course that is not what non-judgment means non-judgment doesn't mean non- discernment we're always called to discern Jesus said judge with righteous judgment that's spiritual discernment we should know good from Evil right from wrong of course but nonjudgment means I'm not going to put that person out of my heart I'm not going to mistake the activity for the person themselves I'm not going to judge people based on their actions anymore so when you notice your mind doing that just say look they're a being on an evolutionary path learning and growing just like me I've made tons of mistakes in my life and I don't want people to judge me so who am I to judge this person for their mistake I forgive them Father I will not judge them for this mistake they're making that's the attitude we're looking for and although I'm saying it with all these words like it's really just an instant recognition of nope I don't do that anymore so the encouragement is this it will feel hard at first but once you gain some momentum this practice becomes like a new default mode in your mind it's like a bad smell or something it's like how much effort do you need to put into being averse to a bad smell not at all right it's automatic when you smell a dirty diaper or something it's oh it's repugnant judgments become exactly like that in your Consciousness that you become very averse to judgmental thoughts and there's it takes no effort on your part to be aware of them try to avoid them it's all it all happens by itself why because you have cultivated Kingdom Consciousness this is what the teachings of Jesus do for us my friends is to help us live in the finished Kingdom that is already at hand that Jesus over and over said it's here and now it's within you it's all around you you can't escape it you can only see it or not see it and the way we see it is by practicing forgiveness love service to others and all these beautiful practices that Jesus taught us so that's what we'll leave you with for this episode before we close you got any final words you want to leave us with James the last thing I'll say is I actually messaged you the other day about this eron but I had this insight about us when we love God and love neighbor we're talking about forgiving our neighbors here but also a practice of forgiving God not that there's anything to forgive God for if God is perfect but really it's forgiving our relationship with God because I think all of us have experiences in our life that we can feel like are unfair and we could get into victim Consciousness about for instance I with my business had an issue recently that seemed very unfair and I was like you know God I'm trying to do the right thing I'm really trying to do something good for Humanity and this is what happens to me like this is so wrong and I was like you know I'm acting very unforgiving and untrusting of God right now so I did a prayer and I I said really it's more of a surrender to God like I'm sorry for harboring this feeling and not trusting you so a practice of forgiveness goes both ways again god is perfect it's not you're not forgiving God to help God it's to help yourself it's to help you live in surrender and trust with God's plan for your life ah beautifully said man it's it's so clear isn't it that every time we forgive we're just offloading a burden from ourselves you know we're the ones who carry the burden that we choose to hold in our mind through judgment judgment is a burden I put I place upon myself and forgiveness is a release that I give myself from that burden forgiveness is for you it really is it's not actually for other people we all have to forgive ourselves at the end of the day and everything I judge in somebody else is just a projection of some part of me that I hate or don't accept or judge and so it's easier to see it in other people and judge it there rather than judge it here and so forgiveness of others is really just a way of taking our projections back saying oh actually this is a part of me I've disowned I've hated my own guilt and shame and and tendency for selfishness whatever it is I'm judging it's part of me that I don't like to look at so when I forgive it in them I take it back and can actually see this has always been a part of me that I haven't loved and accepted and so now the burden is lifted and I can solve the problem where it exists within me all problems are right here between between the temples right and forgiveness is the cleansing Refiner's Fire that relieves us of these problems that we create in our mind so we hope that you're inspired by this message and inspired more than anything to live the Jesus way and we thank you for joining us for this episode please go manifest the kingdom in your life in your world on Earth as it is in heaven and until next time love God love people and we'll see you on the next episode of the Jesus way podcast [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]