Author: Firoozeh

New Vision of Christ’s Atonement

New Vision of Christ’s Atonement

As a kid growing up in a Christian culture, the fear of hell and the wrath of God scared the bejesus out of me! Deathly afraid of Satan, the idea of “salvation” took its hold on my primitive belief system.
Of course, I knew no other. Religious pluralism was a foreign concept to me at the time, and anything and everything “interfaith” was completely outside of my vocabulary and experience. Years later, in high school, we studied great American literature, including Jonathan Edwards’s famous (or infamous) 18th-century fire-and-brimstone sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God.” This passage I will never forget:
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. – “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God,” by the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, July 8th, 1741.
Jonathan Edwards’s dreadful picture of a wrathful God distorted biblical metaphors used to describe God’s moral indignation and seeming outrage over human sin. The problem with such notions? They contain anthropomorphic misconceptions of God, and they depict God’s wrath as motivated and driven by a demand or requirement of retributive justice, as opposed to restorative justice or distributive justice. According to some traditional Christian views, sins can only be forgiven by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, with the result that some atonement theories represent a rather violent Deity. This retrograde view of God, questioned and roundly criticized by many, has also contributed to the rejection of religion by millions of thinking people.
Christ’s atonement, a Biblical doctrine, has resulted in many interpretations throughout the various denominations of Christianity. In the words of St. Paul: “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” – Romans 5:11. Some conservative Christian theologians claim that atonement ultimately functioned as some kind of payoff, with Christ offering his life as a sacrifice so God wouldn’t angrily punish all humanity for its sins.
In this “penal substitution theory” of atonement, Christ’s death averts God’s wrath. Otherwise, the penalty for sin, according to the predominant evangelical view, is death – so with Christ’s atonement, he paid the penalty of death for our collective sins. Yet human nature, as “fallen” and sinful, is left much the same as before, except for those who are spiritually and morally transformed by Christ.
A number of Christian theologians have recommended that the time has come to totally rethink the strange logic of this penal substitution concept, the prevalent view among Protestants, especially evangelicals. This doctrine is bound up with the related doctrine of “original sin,” which the Bahá’í teachings completely reject:
“When the holy breaths of Christ and the sanctified lights of the Most Great Luminary were spread abroad, human realities – that is, those souls who turned towards the Word of God and partook of His manifold grace – were saved from this attachment and sin, were granted eternal life, were delivered from the chains of bondage, and entered the realm of freedom. They were purged of earthly vices and endowed with heavenly virtues. This is the meaning of Christ’s words that I gave My blood for the life of the world [John 6:51]. That is, I chose to bear all these trials, afflictions, and calamities, even the most great martyrdom, to attain this ultimate objective and to ensure the remission of sins – that is, the detachment of spirits from the material world and their attraction to the divine realm – that souls may arise who will be the very essence of guidance and the manifestations of the perfections of the Kingdom on high.
Note that if these words were taken literally, as imagined by the people of the Book [i.e., Jews and Christians], it would be sheer injustice and absolute predestination. If Adam sinned in approaching the forbidden tree, what then was the sin of glorious Abraham, the Friend of God, and the error of Moses, Who conversed with God? What was the offense of Noah the Prophet and the transgression of truth-speaking Joseph? What was the fault of the Prophets of God and the failure of John the Chaste? Would divine justice have suffered these luminous Manifestations to endure, by reason of Adam’s sin, the torment of hell until such time as Christ should come and by His sacrifice rescue them from the nethermost fire? Such a notion is beyond the pale of every rule and principle, and no rational person can ever accept it.
Rather, the meaning is that which was already mentioned: Adam is the spirit of Adam and Eve His self; the tree is the material world and the serpent is attachment to it. This attachment, which is sin, has been transmitted to the descendants of Adam. Through the breaths of holiness, Christ rescued souls from this attachment and delivered them from this sin. “-Abdu’l-Bahá , Some Answered Questions, newly revised edition, pp. 140–141.
Christopher Buck (PhD, JD) attorney and independent scholar

Nobody really talks about this

 

 

Thank you Natalie Kridler Benoit for this post. 

Dana Paxson commented;

It can be too easy to look around at others (and at oneself) and ask: Why isn’t anyone acting on all the alarming challenges we all face? Why does all the energy seem to come from the chaotic, the ignorant, the malicious, the discordant? Why can’t we make things better?
But these anguished questions miss an important point. Those who have endured trauma and come to stillness in healing from it are acting on the alarming challenges in the only effective way. Their stillness is not merely a convalescence. It is an exemplary path to peace, unity, harmony, and understanding. Stillness is where true growth and advancement begin. Our vital energies build in the stillness and manifest themselves gently, insistently, unendingly, punctuated only now and then by the dramatic, traumatic upheavals that elevate us into a new realm of stillness altogether.
While the ignorant and malicious trample and flail about, those in the stillness, healing from the traumas inflicted on them, engender our future. As we gain understanding and abandon malice, the stillness fills us, and we heal. We all deserve to heal because, from our successive cycles of trauma and healing, the world advances toward enduring light.

There is a reason for everything that exists in creation

Rattlesnake in tall grass.

Everything in the cosmos has a purpose. Even, certain politicians, annoying people, venomous snakes (and other harmful creatures), pesky mosquitos… They all push our buttons so we can see and examine ourselves, working to heal or correct our behaviors, and grow from the experience. Remember, sometimes that venom is also medicine, and other people’s bad behaviors can act as a mirror for our development.

“Consider the human eye. Though it hath the faculty of perceiving all created things, yet the slightest impediment may so obstruct its vision as to deprive it of the power of discerning any object whatsoever. Magnified be the name of Him Who hath created, and is the Cause of, these causes, Who hath ordained that every change and variation in the world of being be made dependent upon them. Every created thing in the whole universe is but a door leading into His knowledge, a sign of His sovereignty, a revelation of His names, a symbol of His majesty, a token of His power, a means of admittance into His straight Path.…” Bahá’u’lláh

Always remember, there is a reason for everything that exists, even if we can’t understand it, at this time. 😁🙏
Sending all of you love, and light,

Recognition of the addiction to drama

Recognizing the addiction to drama

 

Photo by Samantha Weisburg

Some people are subconsciously addicted to drama which makes life harder than it has to be for them, and others around them. They only feel alive when they are sad and suffering or when they are overly excited and very happy. Indeed, the best place for one to function at an optimum level is in the state of pure love, joy, and neutrality.

The vibration of “reason” or “logic” on Dr. David Hawkins’s Map of Consciousness is 400. When our energy is vibrating at this neutral frequency, we are in a good place to make important decisions in our daily lives. This means our energy is not overly positive or overly negative and therefore does not allow our ego or emotions to interfere with the messages we are supposed to receive to help us make our best decision.

Always be mindful to relax and open up to receive the Divine Energy you need to thrive.  Activities that help us relax and open up are prayer and meditation, spending time in nature or with loved ones, listening to our favorite music, and laughter.

By Firoozeh Bowden

Connect with the Light

Connect with the Light

Imagine if you were sitting in a room filled with beautiful things. After dark, if you do not turn on the light, it doesn’t mean all those beautiful things are gone, it just means because there is no light shining on them it is difficult to see them now. Next time you find things difficult, remember to connect with the Light, so you can see and appreciate the beautiful things in your life. ❤

The Surrender of Self

The Surrender of Self
A question often raised is why, after living the spiritual life for some time with periods of harmony and absence of emotional negativity, the suffering often becomes more intense than ever before. It’s something that many people find distressing. So what’s the truth from the inner perception where the knowledge of life is discovered?
The self, which is the mind and emotional body, is a mass of psychic force until transformed through living the spiritual life. When allowed free rein within its kingdom the self doesn’t need to exert unnecessary energy beyond its vital needs, which it extracts from its host body – the person. This it does through the fluctuating emotional reactions that are typical of normal behaviour. But when someone begins to live a more conscious way of life (which is when the focus of intelligence turns inward), the self no longer has things its own way as before. Startled by the sudden intrusion from the light of consciousness on its dark underworld, the self withdraws a little deeper from conscious scrutiny. In this temporary vacuum there is then an inrush of enlightened energy, which is characteristic of spiritual awakening. But it’s not long before the self returns to regain its lost ground within the subconscious space of the psyche.
As the spiritual process unfolds and the individual perseveres in overcoming the insidious nature of the self, more ground is made through the purification of the inner space. The consequences for the self, in no longer having the freedom as before to influence the life, is that it becomes more troublesome since it must now exert more forceful energy to sustain its presence in existence. Unbeknown to the self (since it has no knowledge beyond what’s been experienced in time) is that its body has now been reduced in mass, amplifying its presence as extreme discomfort and pain. In a desperate attempt for attention to experience itself, the core of self frantically bounces from one side of the body to the other; the intense pressure being registered is the self dying and not the man or woman.
The suffering must be borne without self-judgement or trying to understand why it’s happening. This is true humility and a selfless offering to the Most High. It’s to be valiant and one-pointed in the devotion to love and truth. The self is being made to capitulate but will resist all the way when it feels its power is being weakened. With perseverance, the self eventually yields and kneels before the radiance of nothing: the absence of all knowing that is the true altar of God. This obliterates the final taint of wilfulness as the total surrender of self to the Divine Being that resides within.
Finally the self, having been eroded by the unrelenting light of the spirit, has been transformed of its defiant nature. This coincides with the realisation of the state of immortality. The self is now aligned with the one good and serves life at the behest of the Divine Will. The challenge is then to bring the spiritual realisation into the world through the living life. Only in the harsh material environment of the western global society can the inner truth be validated as a completion of a particular phase of the spiritual process.
Lance Kelly
“I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself? … Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting.” Baha’i writings