the Temptations of Christ

Illusion and the Temptations of Christ

10 Jan 1999

Opening the Spiritual Door

Sorry to leave you folks hanging on the Hitler thing so long. I just got a new computer and have spent every free moment the past couple days transferring ﬁles and working out bugs.

A reader said that his mother was a Jew. Now I haven’t kept up on the latest discoveries on Hitler, but I heard it was rumored that there was Jewish blood on his mother’s side, but it has not been proven. I was wondering if you know if they have found hard evidence of this.

The interesting thing about Hitler was that many of the things the best of the current seekers hold dear were also dear to him. He took the Bible seriously, he took many fairly enlightened metaphysical writings seriously, he believed in astrology, he was extremely careful about his diet and was a strict vegetarian, he didn’t smoke and drank moderately if at all. In addition to incorporating the best of the New Ager thinking he also took in the best of the Christian right. He harped on and on about family values, promiscuous sex, promoted national pride and returning to the values of the past. Here was a man that “seemed” to have the best of all things and had ingredients that demanded a degree of respect from both sides of the isle.

In addition to this he was sincere. He really believed he was the best thing that ever happened to the world.

On top of all this he was such a dynamic speaker that he would put Clinton or Reagan to shame.

How could a man who had the greatest truths available rolling around in his mind become the greatest threat the world has ever seen?

The answer: illusion in himself which created glamour in the masses.

A philosopher once truly spoke “ They who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.”

Now we certainly do not want another Hitler so it is extremely important that we learn the lesson that the Soul of the Planet tried to carve upon our consciousness.

Let us suppose that another Hitler did arise in our homeland. Do you think the masses would recognize him?

Do you realize that the only person of note who was really concerned about Hitler for a period of about seven years in the late thirties was Winston Churchill? The ﬁrst time he heard his name Winston had a bad feeling about the guy and he preached with a warning voice against him year after year and no one listened. Then ﬁnally after World War II was declared, the people humbly looked to this prophet for leadership.

How many Churchill’s do we have today? How many can see through the glamour of a popular leader and then through the illusion of his words into his soul and see real dangers as Winston did?

I will do just that for us now at the risk of offending some.

Bill Clinton is now impeached and ready to be tried by the Senate.

Now Clinton is caught in both the glamour and illusion that it is his destiny to have a great presidency, and this legacy is something that he must preserve at all cost by staying in ofﬁce until the end of his term. He plans on doing great deeds that will redeem him in the eyes of history.

If the Senate votes to remove him from ofﬁce this will place him in the position of a caged lion (he is a Leo) as far as his belief system is concerned and he will be tempted to use whatever force is necessary to stay in ofﬁce, not only for two more years, but for life.

He is already thinking in the back of his mind what he may do if the Senate convicts. He is considering using a number of possibilities, the least harmful of which is to make a direct appeal to the American people to force Congress to overturn the verdict. Other possibilities include issuing an executive order to suspend the power of Congress, create an emergency situation through war, economy or other means and issue Martial Law.

Now he has not yet made a deﬁnite decision to challenge the Constitution and Congress if he is convicted, for he is receiving some soul energy that yet reminds him of his true responsibilities. But the dangerous thing is that the two alternatives are ﬂuctuating in his mind, and if the time comes that his conviction looks sure he will decide then.

If he were to be successful at overturning Congress then the light that is in him would become darkness and anything would then be possible. His political enemies could become the new Jewish problem demanding an ultimate solution.

If Congress could see the possible future they would work up some kind of censure and probation plan and ride out the next two years. Then this cornering effect caused by illusion would be bypassed.

I would suggest this for the group. Until this trial is over, as you say the Song of the 144,000 visualize the Light and Love descending on both the President and Congress, and see the next two years ending with a peaceful change of ofﬁce. If both the Congress and the President have a little more light and love a great crisis can be avoided.

(NOTE: Fortunately, Congress did not vote to remove Clinton from office and the crisis was avoided)

The point is that illusion is so powerful that it can take even good and decent people along the path of destruction. We read stories all the time about religious people who love their children very much yet will let them die horrible deaths rather than take them to a doctor. Even though they love their children they believe they are doing Gods will because of some black and white illusionary interpretation of an obscure scripture.

The interesting thing is that at person could not be either a Hitler or a Jesus until he totally dedicates himself to doing what he believes to be right. Once you have reached that point to where you are totally dedicated to following the highest you know, then illusion must be dispelled or you will become dangerous. I know in the past I have taught about the importance of following the highest we know and this principle must always be recognized by the disciple. Nevertheless he must also pay constant ATTENTION and note the illusions along the way or he can be tricked along the wrong path.

As we said, many people are following the highest that they know when they do not take their children to a doctor or do not get blood transfusions.

Others are racist because of illusion.

Others substitute a cult leader for common sense and reject communication with their parents.

Some will give all their money to a con artist thinking they are helping starving children.

The ways of transforming good intentions into harm through illusion are without number.

Now because of certain misunderstood scriptures many white supremacists believe that Jews are the literal seed of a satanic offspring from the time of Adam and we would be doing the world a favor by getting rid of them. I do not have time to go into their philosophy, but it deﬁnitely illustrates the harm of interpreting the scriptures without soul contact. Then when a national leader under an illusion comes to power we wonder how such a “nice person” could do such an horriﬁc act.

It is interesting that even Hitler admitted that he could not do a violent act like exterminate six million Jews without a “deﬁnite spiritual conviction.” What he did not realize is that even nice guys committed to doing the right thing can commit a great evil if they are under illusion.

I cannot put too much stress on recognizing and overcoming illusion. Until this occurs in the life of a disciple he or she is not trusted by the Brotherhood of Light for they realize an illusion may yet trip him up. Before illusion is overcome a person may experience quite a few spiritual contacts through the soul, but the door has yet to be opened completely. The door is cracked open by the overcoming of Maya; just enough so you know there is something on the other side. Then it is thrown ajar when glamour does not hinder. Here you can take a little peek inside and see just enough so you know you want more. But when illusion is unraveled the door swings open wide and a world of vision and new opportunities are revealed.

Just before Jesus began his mission in Jerusalem He was tempted with three illusions, and if He would have given in to them He could have turned into a worse than Hitler. Now we all agree that at the time of His temptations Jesus was a good and righteous man, but the Dark Ones saw that all that power to good could be transformed into a power for the dragon of self.

Matt 4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. (An adversary) Matt 4:2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. Matt 4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Matt

4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Matt 4:5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, Matt 4:6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is writ’ten, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in [their] hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Matt 4:7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Matt 4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 4:9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Matt 4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Matt 4:11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

These three temptations all seem harmless enough and the adversary even quoted scripture in an attempt to deceive Jesus just as Hitler was deceived with it. Even the third one could be justiﬁed with the rationalization of “think of all the good I could do if I ruled the world.”

Why would it have caused the downfall of Jesus if he had yielded to these three illusions? Furthermore, what is the illusion behind each of them?

11 Jan 1999

Stones to Bread

There is a genuine correspondence here between the three temptations of Christ and Maya, glamour and illusion. This correspondence, however, is largely a beneﬁt for students for Jesus was beyond the temptation of both Maya and glamour at that time, but there was a real possibility that the Dark Brothers could trick him with illusion for he had not yet been transﬁgured. (Matt 17:1-9)

Let’s look at the ﬁrst temptation. Satan told him that “IF” he was the Son of God to turn the stones into bread. Jesus was very hungry and for most of us that would have been temptation enough to create bread through special powers, but the hunger is not what tempted Jesus.

Imagine yourself in his situation. Suppose the Spirit of God rested upon you and told you that you were to go forth with the power to do miracles and prove to the world that you are the Messiah. Wouldn’t you maybe wonder if you are going crazy? Wouldn’t it be comforting to do some miracle for your own beneﬁt just to verify that you heard the voice of God correctly? Wouldn’t you feel more conﬁdent as you watched stones turn to bread before your very eyes? Now you know for sure God is with you, you would have much greater chance of success, right?

Why would Jesus have been caught in illusion if he had fallen for this trap?

The Second Temptation

It is true that the real temptation for Jesus was the illusion that we need more than the inner conﬁrmation before we can rely on a communication from the Spirit. If He had yielded to the temptation to change the stones into bread He would have been admitting that He was not sure and not trusting of the communication He had received from his Father/Mother God.

The interesting thing is that He later fed 10,000 people by multiplying loaves and ﬁshes which was a much greater miracle than just changing a couple stones into bread. The difference was that this miracle was performed in the service of others. and not self, and he received the inner go ahead to do the miracle.

Jesus often spoke of one greater than Himself which was in Him and that he was basically a student following directions. Notice that just before he raised Lazarus from the dead he thanked his Father within that he was given permission to perform the miracle. The Spirit within never gave Jesus the go-ahead to turn the stones into bread and if He had attempted to do so he would have failed and his faith in his mission would have faltered to the delight of the Dark Brothers.

This is the true meaning of the answer that Jesus gave to his adversary when he said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

The word did not come to Jesus from the mouth (or inner voice) of God to change the stones to bread. He would have been relying on the power of mortal ﬂesh had he attempted to do so.

Matt 4:5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, Matt 4:6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in [their] hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Matt 4:7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Here the adversary used a different tactic – the written Word of God, the scriptures that Jesus cherished as holding the promises of God. Scripture was quoted to Jesus that he adamantly believed to be true and challenged him to test those words.

Jesus could have reasoned as follows: “He’s right. The scriptures do say that the angels will watch over the Messiah and if they are really true and if I am the Messiah then I should be able to jump off the temple and yet be protected. If I did this in front of hundreds or thousands of people then no one would doubt me.”

Jesus had a ﬁrm belief that God would always fulﬁll His promises so if God is true to his word then this would be a miracle that God would be bound to honor, even if He did not receive permission from the inner voice.

Where is the illusion here? What similarities are there to the illusion of the ﬁrst temptation and where is the difference?

If He had jumped from the temple would he have been saved?

Jan 12, 1999

Sources

I was asked about my sources of information about the President.

Let us say that God, John, Buddha or someone else appeared to me and gave me the information, on one hand, and on the other let us say I just made it up out of the blue.

Let us further suppose that the information is true in both cases.

Is your soul any more likely to verify a truth revealed straight from the mouth of God than the same truth that is revealed by accident?

The soul does not discriminate. Truth alone is the religion of the soul and it does not matter where it comes from.

You’ll notice that there are many others who claim to be spiritual teachers who can’t ﬁnish a sentence without saying something like “Master Agathar has spoken and says this is true,” or something of the sort?

Remember the core teaching of everything we have presented so far… If you look to an outside authority, more than the soul within, you can be tricked by the Beast.

Therefore all my teachings directly to any student will carry no authority other than the “Name of the Father/Mother God within.” What I say may or may not be true. As you experience soul contact you will check and become your own authority.

Besides, if I said I received a revelation from some great entity I could be lying, just as are 99% of those out there who make the claim do.

Again I say, the ONLY way for you to know a teacher is guiding you the right direction is through soul contact.

Now some truths stand out more than others do. Some great statements like the Golden Rule (Do unto others…) is so powerful that it registers with the souls of almost everyone. Other truths are more subtle or clouded by bias and we need to unravel the three deceptions to see them clearly.

You may ﬁnd it of interest to know that one thing I told you in relation to the President and Congress was wrong for I have received a correction I need to present to you.

I told you to visualize Light and Love descending on the President and Congress. Now who would doubt that this would be a good thing to do? Very few, which is another good example of checking with the soul rather than believing the obvious.

But there is a danger here. When saying the Song we should only visualize Light and Love descending on people who are open to it and will use the energy for good. If we send Light and Love to anyone on the dark path or of a low vibration or someone who will use power contrary to the good of the whole then the Light and Love we send will be transmuted to the lower centers and all we will do is energize the lower desires of these people.

Many Light Workers at the beginning of World War II made the mistake of sending Light and Love to Hitler and it only had the effect of energizing his lower self rather than making him more sensitive to the needs of others.

The world would have been much better served if they had sent the positive energy to others in Germany who may be more receptive. If the energy was sent to Romel, Stauffenberg and others who were just men seeking to overthrow Hitler the war may have ended sooner.

Therefore, if you send any positive energy to Clinton only do so if you can sense a part of him that is open to the inner voice. If you send Love and Light to Congress do so sensing that there are some (but not all) who are sincere about their job of service and see the positive energy descending on them. Do not visualize any particular names, but just realize that there are some who will positively use the higher energies.

Jan 13, 1999

Unraveling Illusion

Understanding the second temptation will reveal the illusion that even made the Son of God think twice.

God promised that the Messiah would be protected by angels. Therefore, it would seem that there is no way that Jesus could have been killed if he had thrown himself from the temple. It appears he could have put God in a corner because of His Word just as Moses did (as we discussed in a previous post).

The Question: Would God have broken His word if He would not have saved Jesus if he had jumped from the temple?

The Greatest Illusion

Let us again quote the scripture under consideration:

4:7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

The Question is: Would God have broken His word if He would have not saved Jesus if he had jumped from the temple?

“The scripture that the devil quoted came from Psalm 91 and talks about God’s protection of one who puts his trust in Him. It says in v.14, “Because he has loved Me therefore I will deliver him…”

If Jesus had tested God and jumped off the pinnacle of the temple and fell to the temptation of the illusion He would have not been able to fulﬁll His mission as the Messiah and would have either been replaced by another or try again in another life. Since He would have no longer been the designated Messiah then the scriptures about the Messiah would not have applied to him.

Thus if the non Messiah Jesus had jumped off the temple and died the promises made for the Messiah would have still been intact and God’s word would have still been true.

Imagine the shock he would have had if he had accepted the illusion and hit the ground and died? He would have had a rude awakening as a non-Messiah in the world to come.

Because Jesus saw through the illusion He was able to go ahead and do the work of the Messiah and as such the scripture did apply to him and his life was saved again and again until He gave it of His own free will.

Now we go to the ﬁnal temptation:

Matt 4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 4:9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Matt 4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Matt

4:11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Earlier we mentioned about the coming forth of a new translation of “The Gospel of the Nazirenes” which evidence suggests was the earliest Gospel written in the ﬁrst century. It does seem to be more accurate than the regular scriptures.

In this translation Satan adds:

“All this power will I give you, and the glory of them; and to whomsoever I will, I will give it: for it is written, thou shall have dominion from sea to sea, so thou shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with mercy, and make a full end of oppression. If you therefore will worship me, all shall be yours.”

According to this Gospel version the adversary again tempted Jesus with both scripture and reasoning. Since he was the “god of this world” then to him was given power to grant the kingdoms of the Beast. Satan reasoned with Jesus that if He is to fulﬁll the scripture He obviously would have to go through him.

Now most of us would think that any temptation that involved worshipping the devil would have been a no brainer, but this is an illusion by itself. The question is: Why was this temptation actually the most powerful of the three? How did illusion (not glamour) make this so appealing.

Hint: Even though the adversary asked Jesus to worship him the act was not pictured in the temptation as devil worship as we see it today. It corresponds a little more to the Allies during World War II making a pact with the evil Stalin to defeat the even more evil Hitler.

Jan 15, 1999

The Desire of the Master

To understand the third temptation we must look through the eyes of Jesus. This temptation was carried over to the end of his ministry when in the Garden of Gethsemane He asked his Father to remove the cup from him so he would not have to be cruciﬁed, but when it was clear to Him that His personality wish was contrary to the Father’s Will he acquiesced.

To understand this third temptation we must answer this question:

What was the greatest desire of the heart of Jesus that the third temptation seemed to fulﬁll and that the cruciﬁxion seemed to frustrate?

Jan 16 1999

The Kingdom of God

It is true that a desire of the heart of Jesus was to teach love, peace knowledge and so on, but we must remember that he saw from a higher angle of vision than the rest of us.

If you had the power to give a million dollars to a group of homeless to take care of them for six months that would seem to be an admirable goal. On the other hand, if you had the inspiration to develop a plan that would eliminate homelessness, not only from this small group, but for the whole world for all time to come that would ﬁll you with joyous anticipation would it not?

This higher angle of vision for a higher good is a thing that you would think that God would be happy to assist you in accomplishing.. Now just as you go about implementing the plan and seem to have all power within your grasp to accomplish it the inner voice commands you to give yourself to be torn apart by an angry mob. You are told that things will work out in the end.

Then you compare this terrible sounding mission you have with your grand concept that will help millions and it is difﬁcult to make enough sense of it to give it your total faith. You are very tempted to doubt the inner voice.

Question: What project do you suppose it was that Jesus had to give up on when he yielded to the cruciﬁxion?

Hint: Jesus did speak of a kingdom that was not of this world, but he also spoke of another kingdom. What was it? (See Matthew 23:37 and Acts 1: 6-7) What did Jesus mean in the Lord’s Prayer when He said “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven?” Is there a Kingdom patterned after the order of heaven that will manifest on the earth?

Jan 17, 1999

The Illusion Revealed

A reader was on the right track by stating that the hopes and dreams of Jesus were crushed by the third temptation and the cruciﬁxion.

When Jesus gave the prayer “Thy Kingdom Come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” He was expressing the desire of His heart which was to see the manifestation of a physical Kingdom of God on the earth.

All the prophets had predicted such an event for thousands of years and it was only natural for Him to think that he was by far the most qualiﬁed to initiate the creation of such a dream.

Imagine the creation of a society where the lion would lay down with the lamb, where the nations would turn their swords into plowshares and there would be no more war.

Imagine a world where the Prince of Peace was presiding instead of Caesar?

Jesus, being a student and contemplator of the scriptures had the same dream as did all the prophets before him. He wanted to do more than just preach an inner kingdom that few could recognize, but desired to bring the kingdom mentioned by Daniel the prophet:

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, [but] it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” Dan 2:44

If He could use his talents, abilities and great wisdom to set up such a kingdom he would do more to alleviate human suffering than any other thing, but such was not to be.

Unfortunately human consciousness was not ready for such an advance and the God within told Him that even though His heart was in the right place this was not His mission. Even though few would listen He was to teach about the inner kingdom in preparation for an outer kingdom of peace and good will that would surface over 2000 years later.

To understand the temptation of Jesus let us try and put the situation in a more familiar setting.

Most of us on this list are anticipating a new age of peace that is just around the corner. This anticipation of a better world, and the thought that we have a small part we can do to aid that, is one of the things that makes life worth living for many of us.

Now let us suppose that you realized that you were the Jesus of this age and in your mind this better world could only materialize if you could introduce certain principles that the nations could adopt that would bring this age of peace. You also realize that if you cannot carry this plan forward that there will be no age of peace after all. Everyone’s hopes and dreams of such an age will be crushed to powder and many generations would suffer war, disease and death.

You make plans to avoid such suffering by formulating a plan to bring the coming age of peace. You get it all created in your mind and are conﬁdent that you can pull it off. Then unexpectedly the inner voice comes to you and says “not yet my son.” You must wait around 2000 more years before mankind is truly ready for you. Instead of building the outer kingdom you must preach the inner and demonstrate its power by allowing yourself and most of your disciples and friends to be brutally killed. After billions of people have suffered disease, hunger and death, then perhaps you can have a part in the bringing of physical as well as inner peace. The target date for this would be thousands of years in the future.

Wait thousands of years before you do anything to alleviate physical suffering. No way. I must try now.

Then the voice of a Dark Brother comes, speaking with a much louder voice saying to you: “What you believe to be the voice of God cannot be true. It would be the greatest of sins for you to not present your plan until an eon. Even if you try and fail it is much better than not trying at all. I am the true voice of God and I command you to worship me and set up a glorious kingdom that will end human suffering and war. Consider what I say and compare it to the other voice and ask yourself which of us is the true loving God who seeks to help humanity?

You ﬁlter these two messages through your heart, your feelings and your mind and they all seem to declare that the latter more sensible voice was correct and more loving, but then you ﬁnd you must force yourself through an act of will to test the two voices with your soul. When you ﬁnally do this you ﬁnd that the soul tells you the ﬁrst voice was correct. You do not understand completely why this is so, but you are now faced with a great struggle as to which voice to follow. The ﬁrst voice was so still, silent and seemed to set your inner being on ﬁre whereas the second voice was very authoritative and seemed to activate every feeling in your body. This God promised you your heart’s desire and what is wrong with that when your heart’s desire is for such a beautiful thing?

Can you now see the struggle that you would have and how easy it would be to give in to the “ﬂow?” Who wants to wait until thousands of years to improve the physical world?

Jesus passed the temptation and went and did as He was commanded by the God within, but He still kept a door open and tested the waters for building a physical kingdom.

Then just before he was cruciﬁed he began to see more clearly that God was correct after all as He lamented:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and Matt stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed [is] he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Matt 23:37-39

How often He tested the waters and tried to gather the lights, but they would not listen. Their consciousness was not ready just as the inner voice told Him. The only way to truly reach them and prepare their hearts for things to come was a supreme sacriﬁce on His part.

Thus did Jesus go to the cruciﬁxion, but few realize that the sacriﬁce of His body on the cross was nothing compared to the sacriﬁce of His dream.

To understand the impact that Jesus had it helps us to understand the keynote of the age of Pisces and the coming age of Aquarius.

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