Theos-Talk Archives (August 1995 Message tl00213)

> >Regarding the question of whether the Masters exist.
>
> "A master is one who has mastered himself in the Love of God or Christ
> and when a student speaks of his master he is referring to a person who's
> example he seeks to follow and to whom he is related by shared spiritual
> interests and devotion to service -- not to one who has any authoritative
> control over his life. In this spirit of freedom The Son of God known as
> Christ is the master of the masters. A disciple is one who seeks to be
> disciplined ... so as to follow the spiritual path that all who have mastered
> themselves in God's Love have also followed. The hierarchy is the realm of
> relationships between disciples, masters and God and could be referred to as
> the kingdom of heaven. One's place in the hierarchy is determined by one's
> love, humility, compassion and interests as to service in God's Plan. The
> hierarchy could also be thought of as the next kingdom in nature toward which
> we all are evolving."

The above requires, IMHO, what we who seek after truth in the
theosophical manner might describe as defining one's terms. As a
retired bishop of an offshoot of the LCCI, a former member of
the American Academy or Religion and the Society of Biblical
Literature, I see a number of assumptions and assertions in the
above for which no substantive evidence has been offered.

"The Son of God known as Christ" begs a number of questions.
Strictly speaking the reference should be to *the* Christ - the
anointed one - who *some* 1st century Israelites expected would
come. "Son of God" is a Hebrew/Aramaic idiom for [any] Holy
Man. Thus when the centurion in John's gospel is reported as
saying that Jesus was "truly a son of God" he is saying that J.
is holy, nothing more. See "Jesus the Jew" by Geza Vermes -
various editions. "Kingdom of Heaven" is an expression unique
to Matthew's gospel, and should properly be translated (from
Greek or Aramaic) as "The Kingdom of the Heavens." The other
gospels all use "Kingdom of God" in the same context.

Concerning God's alleged Plan, may I refer to I Corinthians,
where the famous passage occurs "Who can know the mind of God
except the Spirit of God?"

May I suggest, Patrick, with all due respect, that there may be
a lot more research to be done before competing your article(s)?

Alan Bain, D.D.