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No doubt, anyone who attempts to "complete" the message of Jesus Christ opens himself up to question and perhaps ridicule. But, I ask, what are we now to do? We are at a crossroads, not knowing which way to turn. In this work, I try to provide a direction and so carry that responsibility for, you see, I carry the cross, too, just as you will upon receiving this work. "The speaking of the truth is the taking of the stand for life. Of course, our words must come from the balance (silence), and they will as we stand up for life. Each time a man stands up for a woman and a woman stands up for a man, life is consecrated." I Carry the Cross, too: The Completion of the Message of Jesus Christ

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Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	First Edition Design Publishing
Date de parution	02 octobre 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781622871902
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0480€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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I Carry the Cross, too --The Completion of the Message of Jesus Christ
Christopher Alan Anderson

First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
I Carry the Cross, too --The Completion of the Message of Jesus Christ

Christopher Alan Anderson
I Carry the Cross, too,
The Completion of the Message of Jesus Christ
Copyright 2012 Christopher Alan Anderson
ISBN 978-1622871-90-2

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
September 2012
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means ─ electronic, mechanical, photo-copy, recording, or any other ─ except brief quotation in reviews, without the prior permission of the author or publisher.
Foundation of Man and Woman Balance
www.manandwomanbalance.com
Note to the Reader:
I Carry the Cross, too—The Completion of the Message of Jesus Christ written in 1992. Later it was combined with three other writings into Man, Woman, and God and published in 1994. The writing is a bit rough in places. I was only in my early forties at the time. But there are some real jewels to be found throughout as is often the case with original work. Also, the use of the masculine and feminine could be smoother. Sometimes I use man, mankind, him, his, etc., to mean both the man and woman. In any embodiment of text, that takes time to work out.
No doubt, anyone who attempts to “complete” the message of Jesus Christ opens himself up to question and perhaps ridicule. But, I ask, what are we now to do? We are at a crossroads, not knowing which way to turn. In this work, I try to provide a direction and so carry that responsibility for, you see, I carry the cross, too, just as you will upon receiving this work.

C.A.A.— December 2, 2009
Santa Rosa, California
Table of Contents

The Time
The Promise
The Path
The Light
The Purity
The Denial
The Teachings
The Freedom
The Crucifixion
The Prayer
The Resurrection
Eternal Life
The Marriage Vow
Appendix 1:
The Age of Freedom—A Call to Join Arms
Appendix 2:
Let the Light Shine Through
The Time
John 8:32. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

It has been nearly two thousand years since our great teacher uttered these words: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. As I look around the world today, it appears to me the truth has yet to be found and freedom has not been allowed to flourish. I wonder then, when are we genuinely going to know the truth? Isn’t it time now? Don’t you have a sense that the time for the truth is now? We aren’t going to be able to know the truth two thousand years from now; I dare say, not even two thousand seconds from now. If the truth is ever to be known, it will have to be known right now. The truth is only contained in this present moment.
There actually is a reason why the truth could not be known before this day. The general answer is that mankind has been looking “out there” for it. (I will leave the more specific answer for later.) We think, I presume, that the truth will come to us if we do certain things, hold specific beliefs, or meet certain requirements. But have we ever just sat down and said, the time for the truth is now? Only when we come to the now i s the truth available to us from which we are able to discern its reality. The truth has always been here, has it not? It is just waiting for us to notice it.
An important question needs to be asked which is, do you want to know the truth? If we were to answer this question based upon how many of us actually know the truth, the answer would have to be resounding no! Do you want to know the truth, really? Do you feel that question in the depths of your heart and soul? If not, I suggest you put this book down until you do. If so, let us note that the truth is not for the meek. We will be making some great stretches and conceptual leaps that will demand our greatest efforts. Just to speak about the truth today is no small feat. It seems that the matter is nearly taboo; it just doesn’t fit into the status quo. But I ask, what else is there? I would suggest to you that nothing less will do. Only the truth will fill the vacuum in our hearts and souls and bring clarity out of the chaos surrounding us.
Oftentimes people ask the question, what is the value in knowing the truth? Another way to state this is, “What’s in it for me?” Besides what I have just mentioned, let me just say, the truth is the truth. Isn’t that value enough? The truth is the truth. If you want another value let’s add, and it will make you free.
I would like to approach one final question in this section. In a work of this nature the question is bound to arise, “Who am I?” Just who do I think I am to speak for the truth or complete the message of Jesus Christ? Do I consider myself to be Jesus Christ, i.e., a second coming? Well, let me ask you, “Who do you think you are to evaluate me or ascertain the ‘truth’ of my words?” You see, we are all in the same boat. The issue is not who I am or who you are. The issue is simply that of the truth and the opening available in our hearts for it to surface. We cannot arrive at the truth by way of claim, per se. I can only ask that you consider any words in the truth that if my heart is open, you will receive accordingly.
The Promise
John 16:12. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

If we are to consider the above verse, we may conclude that there were some essential things that Jesus left unsaid. What are these things and why were they left unsaid? These are important questions to answer. It would appear that Jesus made a decision not to reveal the whole of the truth to the men and women of his day. Was that because they were not ready to receive it? Maybe if mankind had received the “whole truth,” he (men and women) would have proceeded to distort or abuse it. Yet, one could argue that partial, incomplete truth is open to distortion and abuse as well. Furthermore, undoubtedly, mankind would consider his partial truth to be the whole of the truth (the ultimate distortion and abuse), which is exactly what has happened. The use of partial truth as representing whole truth seems to have been going on since the beginning. We are so familiar with people’s claims of the truth—not just that they possess it, but that you are doomed if you do not follow it. No wonder why we are skeptical of any claim of truth. These ideologues and zealots give truth a bad name. How can they possess it when it is evident that they themselves cannot allow another to be free?
So why did not Jesus convey the whole of the truth? Did he not now it himself? Certainly, with what he has left to us, we have been unable to capture it. Is the truth that difficult? I don’t think so. Why then have we been unable to truly grasp it?
I believe the answer to this question lies in the words, “But ye cannot bear it now.” What this means to me is that, heretofore, we have not possessed the conscious capacity to ascertain the truth. We have not been able to conceptualize it or abstract it in our minds. Not that we don’t have that capacity but, as Jesus said, we could not bear it. But, I believe, there is a reason for this that we need to understand. We need to review our own consciousness progression.
The beginning of what we know as consciousness can generally be summed up in the great idea known as monotheism . Monotheism, as most understand, is the belief in a one god. (From this point on “God” became capitalized.) Philosophically speaking, it can be viewed as a conception of a one order. This idea of a one order (or God)-- a way of creation— to things was the great abstraction that centered or created conscious man. Until that conscious abstraction was made of a one order, man (men and women) could not readily step back from nature (the one order) and thus see himself in relation to it. Heretofore, man had been in a preconscious state, if you will, being “one with nature”—but not conscious of that. Not until he was able to step back from nature, to separate himself from nature consciously, could he then begin to conceive of himself as a self in relationship to nature or what could be called the non-self or other. So the monotheistic conception was nothing less than a great historical and evolutionary leap that brought to mankind his awakening of self and other— which is consciousness! It brought a semblance of order to his mind providing him with a sense of self as to other.
Now, with this idea of a one God/order comes the idea of truth. The truth is simply the one order of things. Call it the metaphysical or universal order or the spiritual or absolute permanence, etc., it, the truth, is simply what is, with the added recognition that one is now conscious of that. So it can be said that the monotheistic conception is nothing less than a conception or consciousness of the idea of truth. Man began his conscious progression from the idea that there was an ultimate truth to things! Notice that all of our great conceptions (philosophies and religions, etc.) are monotheistic in nature. They have to be (to make sense) as order is subsumed in consciousness. We could not even fathom, abstract, conceive of, or experience a nature, order, or God without the precursor of— the truth.
Our first great metaphysical conceptions were developed in what we today call our great religions. Religion essentially is a representation of “how it is.” Religions are truth claims. Someone comes forth and says, “This is how it is,” and, if others believe as well, we have a religion. Of course, the development of a religion is often a slow process possibly taking centuries but, in its simplest form, it is a truth claim. Religion(s) in practice could not develop before monotheism.
The same holds for philosop