Gathering 2004, Part 28
Spiritual Food and Drink
JJ: I was just telling Phillip that when I was a kid the Bishop called me and asked why he rarely saw me in church. I told him, “I can’t stand the hymns. They’re too boring.” He replied, “Hymns are wonderful!” I said, “Not to me they aren’t.” So for us I wrote a new batch of hymns.
In response to the Jews, Jesus said, “Verily, verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die.”
Notice He differentiates. He talks about when the children of Israel were in the desert following Moses around. All they had to eat was manna. They ate it and they’re all dead. He said there is another manna that you can eat that leads to eternal life and you will not die. So He’s differentiating. A lot of people think He’s speaking figuratively here but He’s emphasizing that He’s speaking fairly literally also because He gives the example of the Israelites who ate the manna and who are physically dead. Contrary to that he said there is a manna that you can eat thereof and not die.
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat this bread he shall live forever and the bread that I give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, ‘How can this man give us flesh to eat?’ Then Jesus said unto them, ‘Verily verily I say unto you except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink of His blood ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood shall have eternal life and I shall raise them up at the last day for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed and he that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
“As a living Father has sent me I live by the Father so that he eateth me even he shall live by me. This is the bread which came down from heaven not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever.” John 6:51-58
He continues a couple chapters later, John 8, 50. “And I seek not mine own glory. There is one that seeketh and judgeth. I say to you, if a man keep my saying he shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto Him, ‘Now we know that thou has the devil. Abraham is dead and the prophets are dead and now sayeth that if a man keep my saying he shall never taste of death.”
They were saying to Jesus, “Obviously Abraham was a greater man than you and the prophets were greater than you and they’re dead yet you’re saying you have some keys that a man may eat and never taste death.
Jesus made an interesting statement when He said, “He that keepeth my saying shall never taste death.” Well, didn’t Jesus die when He was crucified? So shouldn’t He be able to give us an example of His own teachings? Is this a contradiction? He says a man will never taste death yet they apparently put Him to death so He tasted death.
Audience: comment inaudible
JJ: What do you think it is? The truth of the matter is that Jesus never really died. All of us has a silver cord connecting our spiritual bodies to our physical bodies. It even talks about it in Ecclesiastes where it says, “the silver cord be loosed’ and the spirit of God returns home to the God that gave it.” So the silver cord has to be loosed for there to be physical death. Even though Jesus was hung on the cross and suffered, the silver cord was not broken. Jesus suffered, of course, and when He was on the cross and put into the tomb this connection with His body was not completely severed. The silver cord still had a link to His body so He never really completely died so He never tasted death. This makes a lot of sense because he says, “If a man will keep my saying, he shall never taste death.” Wouldn’t He set an example of His own teachings? So, He maintained a link with His physical body for the three days that He was in the tomb and this link provided one of the keys of bringing the body back to life.
Now, the big question is, ‘how in the world do we duplicate what Jesus did?’ Let’s go back and study this verse a little more carefully. ‘He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.’ The usually interpretation of this is what? What do the born-againers think that means?
Audience: That you’re going to die but you’re going to go to heaven.
JJ: In other words, you just acknowledge Jesus is Lord and Savior and that’s it, right? That’s all you need to do. That’s pretty simple, isn’t it? They differentiate and say, “Well, the Mormons believe in a little bit different Jesus than us so they’re not going to make it” even though the Mormons say, “We believe in Christ.” The Seventh Day Adventists say, “We believe in Christ.” The Jehovah Witnesses say, “We believe in Christ.” All differentiations of Christianity do that but the staunch born-againers will say, “No, that’s not the right Christ.” The Mormons think, “The born-againers don’t have the right Christ either. We have the right Christ.” But is that what it means? To believe on the man Jesus and you will be saved?
A key to this was revealed when a man came to Jesus and said, “Good master I have a question for you.” Jesus said, “Why do you call me good? There is only one good and that is God.” Now if Jesus is the one and only God as the religions teach why would He say, “Why do you call me good? There is only one good and that is God”? The reason was that the man was looking at Jesus’ physical form, the physical personality and calling Him good. In the way Jesus defines good, none of us would really match up to what is good. Matter of fact, Jesus’ critics called Him a drunkard and a wine bibber and an associator with prostitutes and they didn’t think He was very good at all. By their definition He was somewhat of a rabble rouser.
What He was trying to discourage them from doing was looking on the man instead of what is in the man or in all of us, which is the Spirit of God. He says, ‘don’t call me good. There is only one that is good.’ Do you think He would say the same thing when we say, “We believe in you Jesus. Do we have everlasting life?” How would He answer that if He were here? Would He perhaps say, “don’t believe in Jesus the man. Believe in the Christ, the son of God which is available to all of us. I am the son of God but so are you. Believe in the principle of the son of God for you are Gods and God’s spirit is within us.”
That the whole body of God is composed of it various parts, including us. It says this in I Corinthians 12. It says that God is the body and all of us are parts, that some of us are hands, feet eyes etc. It calls Jesus the head and the rest of us arms, legs, and eyes and that they all cooperate together and all of these are Christ. All of these together, not just the man Jesus, is the Christ but all the different parts of the body are Christ and of course Christ is God. So that’s the God principle that the body is the whole.
So He says, “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” They probably wrote it a little differently than how He actually said it. He probably said, ‘he that believeth on Christ, meaning the Christ principle, has everlasting life.’ He often did speak that way. Whenever He mentioned the word Christ, He spoke of it in the third person, not referring to Himself but speaking of Christ as if it was not just Him. If you read the scriptures carefully you’ll find that this is the way that He spoke.
“He that believeth in the principle of Christ hath everlasting life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness are dead. That bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which cameth down from heaven. If any man may eat this bread he shall live forever.” What is the bread? What is the bread that came down from heaven?
There He was talking about physical bread; you can’t live by physical bread alone. Then He says, “Ye shall live forever and the bread that I give is my flesh which I shall give for the life of the world. The Jews are discussed among themselves, “How can this man give his flesh to eat?’ It was said unto them, “Verily I say unto thee if you do not eat the flesh of the son of man and drink His blood you have no life in you.” So you have to do two things. You have to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and you also need to drink His blood. They thought, “Boy this guy is a weird duck! He has the devil.”
Audience: It seems to me that the flesh and blood and bread and water are a sacrament and the first thought that comes to my head is a sacrament makes me think what is the difference between Him and the twelve or the eleven others that didn’t get it. I’d assume that if the bread and water was spiritual; if I was to eat bread and drink water I’d be nourishing my body. If I was to eat spiritual bread and drink spiritual water there would be something to strengthen or revive the spirit. Joseph Smith said if you save the spirit you’ll save the body.
JJ: Good statement. I hadn’t heard that before but it’s good. Jesus talks about a bread that came down from heaven. Bread is what feeds you and gives you strength, so if there is a bread in heaven, what does it do for the residents of heaven? It strengthens their spirit.
Audience: Another thought I just had and I don’t know if it’s quite related but we have the tree of death, the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. We know they’re opposites and the tree of life gives life and the tree of good and evil somehow causes death. It would almost seem that the lack of knowledge of good and evil could create life which is the opposite of the two trees. I don’t know if that’s related or not.
JJ: Yea, it’s related. There are a number of interpretations to this. Bread is that which gives you physical strength. Spiritual bread would be that which gives you spiritual strength. Blood is that which flows through us and gives us life. A spiritual blood would give us spiritual life. Spiritual life is eternal so if we eat that which sustains the eternal we are in a state of deathlessness. If we have a life flowing through us that sustains the eternal, that gives us deathlessness. The scriptures say the blood is the life of the body and of course the bread is that which sustains and feeds the spirit.
We could call the bread the Word of God. In another place He says this, “It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh, physical flesh, profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, they are life.” John 6:63 So would the words be connected to the spiritual manna, the spiritual bread, the spiritual life? In the beginning was the word. By the power of the word all things were created, or by the Word of God. It tells us that in the Gospel of John. All things were created by the Word so there must be a connection between the word and the spiritual manna from heaven.
He says, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” And He is also what else? The Word. He is the Word that came down from heaven and He is the bread that came down from heaven. So the bread that gives eternal life is what? The Word. What word? What word of God? Is there a certain word? What are the words that give eternal life? Do I just read the Bible and that’s it? Do I read Alice A Bailey and that will do it? What words? How do we get words that give us eternal life?
Audience: It would have to be the same as you did with the coin in your book. It would have to be a focus word for the original creation of that thing. That would be the word for each of us since we’re all original and different.
JJ: You’re on the right track. “He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life. The hour coming is not here when the dead shall hear the voice of God and they that hear shall live. As the Father hath life in Himself, even so has He given the Son to have life in Himself.” John 5:24-26 There is a key phrase here. They who hear shall live. What does that mean? Don’t we all hear? I’m speaking. Does everyone hear me?
Audience: inaudible comment/question
JJ: Not quite. That’s a sacred word with power behind it. He’s actually talking about something else that leads to that.
Audience: The physical word doesn’t do any good for you so it’s some kind of spiritual word. The thought came to me that perhaps the spirit has a vibration that connects with that vibration or amplifies it. Somehow the spirit has to hear something.
JJ: I’ll give you a hint. Remember what we’ve taught concerning the difference between facts and principles? What’s the difference? The language of the Holy Spirit is what? Principles are the language of the Holy Spirit. In other words, there are two types of words and two types of food. Some food is like data. It can be sent through a computer or whatever. Then there are principles. Once you understand a principle, you understand a thousand words that explain that principle. Can someone tell me what a principle is?
Audience: The Christ Principle. Is that the word? When you take upon yourself the Christ Principle.
JJ: The Christ is the mediating principle between God and man. That is a principle. When you understand that we have spirit and we have matter and the interplay between spirit and matter, that point that we can reach with our consciousness, is the Christ Principle. It opens the door to all spiritual knowledge. So, the Christ Itself is a principle. The whole idea of mathematics is a principle. Once you understand the principle of mathematics you can get millions and millions of answers through multiplication, division, algebra, etc. When you get the whole idea of what math is that tells you more than twenty years of memorizing tables and things, doesn’t it?
Audience: A principle would be an understanding of a concept of idea.
JJ: Another principle was taught by Joseph Smith, Plato and other philosophers. It said, if there was a beginning, there will be an end but if there is no beginning, then there will be no end. This is a principle. When you understand this principle, you can apply it and find all kinds of knowledge. For instance, let’s apply this principle to common teachings. A common idea is that we began at birth but God is going to do something so we can live forever. That means you have a beginning but no end but according to the principle there is no such thing. Anything that has a beginning has an end so that means this doctrine cannot be right.
Now, let’s pick a Mormon teaching. Mormons teach that if you behave yourself and do everything they tell you to do you’ll eventually be a god. So they teach that there is a beginning to you being a god which means there is going to be an end to you being a god. That means they don’t really understand the idea correctly because it violates the principle taught by their own prophet.
Let’s go on to the resurrection. There is a beginning to the resurrection but they’ll be no end. Again, that violates the principle so something is wrong with that doctrine. By understanding one principle you can find all sorts of things that are true and false. It leads you to everything that is true when you understand the principle behind something. One principle leads to thousands of pieces of information.
Audience: Truth is confirmed by the Holy Spirit so we say a truth is?
JJ: That is a piece of data. If you say Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that is a piece of data. So you need to know what it means. What’s the principle behind a Son of God? What’s the principle that governs the Christ and what He is? What does it mean? The whole principle behind it is the interplay of spirit and matter produces soul. The Son of God principle lays at the point of interplay between spirit and matter which mediates between God and man like the scriptures say. Soul mediates between God and man. Soul opens the door so that God and man can interplay with each other. That principle is within you. It’s not an outside Christ. The outside Christ came to show us the way so that we can find the inside Christ within us. The Kingdom of heaven is within you, said Jesus Himself.
Anything that has form has a beginning and an end. The Earth has form. It had a beginning and it will have an end. The sun has form. It had a beginning and will have an end. The universe has form. It had a beginning and will have an end. It’s only the formless that has no beginning and no end. Everything comes from the formless spirit, comes into the material world and comes back. There is however, no end to creation because there was no beginning to creation. The cycles of creation have always existed and will always exist.
If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it. Herodotus (484 BC – 430 BC),
First Posted Aug 12, 2005
Copyright by J J Dewey
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