For those of you living in the United States, I hope you had a safe and pleasant Memorial Day weekend. This portion of the commentary of the Thirteenth Saying of Jamil stresses the re-establishment of the Religion of Light in the world, the nature of those who would lead the Second Advent Church, and the concept of High Religion as opposed to mundane religion.

The Thirteenth Saying (Part 8)

And The Man continued speaking to the Companions of The Way.

“‘Jamil came to establish a high religion of Light. He came to regenerate and restore enlightened teachings. Our religion demands great spiritual dedication and commitment in order to understand and appreciate it. I believe that Jamil came to teach us that the ordinary, natural Man who wishes to live in the world and spend a very small part of his life on spiritual matters cannot take the reins of this Church. He is trying to tell us that only men and women who are totally dedicated to the spirit, living their lives in total dedication, can possibly regulate and govern this Church; that this Church is not a church for the laity, nor for natural or common men and women – those of the world. This Light religion makes common uncommon.

“‘This Church is a church for spiritual people who can commit themselves totally to the Order. In that respect it is an Order first and then a church. We have to live within the ordinances, ethics, and disciplines of the Order. Only then can we manifest the Light necessary to quicken the natures of ordinary or natural men and women. Because of this total commitment at the very beginning of the Church, we will be better able to assist the Sun and alter the radiation to the planet. Thus we join the Sun to help uplift the common, natural Man to be spiritually motivated. Once this is done, Man will change for the better.

“‘We know that this power of transformation is beyond Man’s ability. He cannot achieve it for himself. Jesus Christ motivated the world. He moved the Hebrews, and eventually the Romans and the Greeks. Jesus was the motivating force for those people as Jamil is the motivating force for us. Since the beginning of time, holy teachers have motivated Man to a greater understanding of God. Man does not have the inclination to do this on his own. If it were not so, we would not need holy teachers. We would not need to be instructed by God.

“‘Now, to get back to those few who have been selected or chosen to lead the Church. I am convinced in my own heart that Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, and many others were very special men, inspired men. They had to be inspired to found a nation of the order of America. How they were inspired, I cannot say. Whether it was by God or by a spirit, I do not know. But I do believe that this nation of free men and women was prepared and nurtured by some spiritual force in order to mother a great world religion.

“‘I personally believe that the Hebrews and the Romans, and people of many other great cultures belonged to civilizations of destiny that did inspire Mankind to a greater evolution. In the case of the Romans, law and order and plans for world order were first envisioned. That was their hope. This hope was transferred to the Roman Catholic Church, which became a religious world order. Here we have the universal hope of Man desiring to band himself into a common order. We see a kind of evolutionary process in society and religion. There is always a pattern to evolution; a simple or less complex pattern breeds a more complicated one.

“‘In the case of Jesus, I believe He was trying to create an idea of universality in high religion; a concept far beyond anything known or even understood by the common or natural Man. He was using the Sun as a central point, the source of all life on the planet. Jesus was pre-existent. He had lived before he came to this Earth. He was pre-ordained to live the life that he did. We must first, then, accept the existence of a higher world beyond our own – a spiritual world of permanence. Ours being a transitory world, natural Man cannot conceive of such a world. Thus we can determine that Jesus came from a higher world. He descended to the planet.’”

And we will continue next week.

Last week’s final portion of the Thirteenth Saying focused on the nature of The Child, while the previous portion treated on the nature of The Man. This part is commentary and discusses the concept of the pre-ordained, predestination, and the spermatikos or seminal agency of God as Father.

The Thirteenth Saying (Part 7)

“And after The Man had read them this Saying, he rolled up the scroll and replaced it in the alforja. And The Companions said nothing for a long while, each one of them reflecting on the words of Jamil that had come to them from out of the past. And The Man, his head bent downward in the direction of the stones, waited for their responses. For it was their custom to discuss the Sayings after each reading.

“After a long pause one of the mariners, The Navigator, the first to speak, said, ‘There is much in that Saying about the fact that God seems to have chosen the people who will work within The Community. You have spoken many times in seminars, and you have written many books about the concept of the pre-ordained or the pre-elect who will actually lead The Community. And it seems as though Jamil was teaching that the people who will really profoundly affect the institution of the New Religion in the world are only those people who have been chosen by God for that specific purpose. And that those people were chosen before their entrance into this physical world; that their whole life has been structured to gain knowledge, and the tools to put into use for The Community.

“‘I know, to great extent, this has been the case in your lifetime. Your experiences indicate this. This question comes to mind: Who were we, what were we before we were conceived? Since we did not come into The Community right after our birth, nor did we find this Teaching earlier, were we then all natural men and women living in this world? Yet, we seem to have been chosen for this work. We have each lived a number of years and had various experiences before we came into The Community along different paths. It seems to me each of us had to use our own free will and intelligence to find our way to The Community to enable us to realize our supernatural heritage. In other words, we are not just natural men and women who have lived good lives and have been rewarded for those good lives by the Grace of God. Not that we would have expected such a reward in our early life. The question gets back to the matter of free will. Did we elect to come to this Earth before our birth? Or did God send us here against our wills? And that brings up another question. Have we descended from a higher world, or did we ascend from a lower world? I may not be making myself understood because I do not know how to put all of my thoughts into words.’

“The Man thought for a moment. And after collecting his thoughts he answered The Navigator saying, ‘To answer your questions we have to ask ourselves whether this religion is for the natural Man or only for the supernatural Man. Is ours an elitist religion or a religion for the common person? These are important considerations by which the world will judge us.

“‘Now, are we acting as though we were superior to other men and women, are we flaunting our spiritual development over others, over the ordinary person? I do not believe any of us is doing this. On the other hand, we have to ask ourselves, “Was Jesus an ordinary man?” I do not believe he was. I do not believe that Jamil was an ordinary person, not at all. I do not believe that Peter and James and the first apostles; transformed by the touch and words of Christ in Galilee were ordinary men. I believe they were prepared, or they were of a special nature prior to their entrance into the world.

“‘You might recall that an angel came to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and said unto her: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Here we have an immaculate conception, the natural Man and the supernatural Man dwelling together in one body. The supernatural, or the spiritual nature, was the result of the seminal light, or the germinating seed, sent to Earth by God from the Worlds of Light. The human nature was produced by the seed of Joseph and the egg of Mary. Thus Jesus had two natures, the human and the divine. Do not all people share this dual nature? I believe they do.

“‘Remember the Gospel teaches us that “Jesus came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the Sons of God.” These words teach us that Jesus was very selective as to whom he preached. He was seeking out the pre-ordained. Not all of the pre-ordained recognized him, of course. This shows how human reasoning, free will, and intelligence can blind us to spiritual things. Natural Man is made supernatural by the implantation of Christ within the Spirit of Light. The natural Man, the common man, is what he is by free choice; and the fact that he has bent to the ways of the world. If he but listens to the Word and examines the Image, then he can become transformed into a supernatural Man, which is to say, a spiritual and unearthly Man. Once transformed, he experiences a new reality, a reality that was always in the mind of God. This is what is meant by pre-existence and pre-ordination.

“‘In the orthodox churches a select number of priests serve the laity. But because the laity consists of large numbers, and because they are materially oriented, the laity eventually dictates to the ministry, mostly because the ministry is dependent upon them for its very existence. This is true in the Christian churches and Jewish synagogues. All too often God becomes a material deity and the whole of religion revolves around material needs. Christ taught that God is spirit. Thus religion can only be spiritually oriented. Of course there will always be material needs; but when spiritual things become suspect to religious materialists, there is a perversion of religion.’”

We will continue with the commentary over the next few weeks.