Article #79
Subject: Comments on the Book of John
Author: Andrew W. Harrell
Posted: 9/2/2011 12:25:21 PM

Amateur Theological Thoughts on Truth and the Gospel of John

Chapter 1
John admits in Chapter 1:8 that he was not the light. But, Even though he,
himself, was not the Light...If, he, John, was born again, living nowadays,
with us.. He would be the Light. For, The Holy Spirit ( God inside of him )
would teach him how to be all things as Christ has promised him in the
Gospel of Christ which he faithfully witnessed to us . Chapter 14:20.

This chapter speaks about God's Son as His Spiritual Word. It Speaks about it
(Him)as a Divine Word ( I AM...existence) not just based on intuition and
desire..but on ordered logical thought and principle. in ordered logical
thought and reasoning we have two types of ordered thought. There is backward
chaining from a conceptual goal using rational thought substantiation and
inference. And, there is forward chaining inductively in the object oriented
substantiation of existence and truth. These two approaches are represented
by the order of the realization of God's will and His existence (I AM).
According to author James Gleick in he May 2011 issue of the Smithsonian
magazine there is a thing called a "meme" ( so named by Richard Dawkins anf
David DennitT and Nobel prize winner J Monod) it is not a physical object or
physical substance, not a perceptive experience, not a mental experience (or
it requires a specific individual human being with a specific set of
backgrounto experiences to exist in) It is a "meme" a unit of thought
experience like a "concept".
A robot or a computer could have a meme but it would not be the same type of
meme that we have since robots and computers live in different worlds of
experience than we do. They do not (as of yet) have the rich word of shared
past blood ancestors, spiritual ancestors, human experience that we humans
do. So the philosophic/theological question becomes, what is the concept of a
meme, what is the concept of a concept. For some ideas and a short paper I
wrote on this subject back in 1983 see the web blog mentioned or the postings
at the discussion board directory on the yhwhschofchrist.org. Website.

Chapter 3
As Jesus has said, " Every wrong doer hates the Light, and will not come out
into it...for they are afraid there works will be exposed..But he who
practices Truth (does what is right)' comes out into the Light;so that his
works may be shown to be what they are (wrought with God's help...that
is...done according to his will)" 3:20 Therefore to be the Light
We must be willing to help God bring it as a part of ourselves to others. To
be a witness to Truth, we must serve it by being not only observers of
it...but participates in it.
When we participate with God's Light we surrounds us and the love in it
enfolds us. When we are a part of it, it goes forth from us and dwells inside
of us


Chapter 4

How can we worship God in Spirit and in Truth?

God heals us all using his divine creative order 1)Spiritually,2)mentally,3)
emotionally,4)physically. So,too,can we be Him!



Chapter 5

How can we demonstrate ( with God's help bring what already exists in heaven
into realization here on earth)?

The first step, as C. Fillmore says in his book Mysteries of John(chapter 5)
is to observe a sabbath from false appearances. The particular technique can
be a simple verbally stated denials of the reality of any obstacles. Or, it
can be Yogic thought stopping as explained by Patanjali. Or Buddhist present
moment breathing Gathas. Or it can be meditation and affirmation of the truth
of Bible verses in the Gospels or Psalms.
The next step is to go forward in our lives and live in accordance with this
divine truthful realization of what God has promised us through his living
Word is true. This is where the hard part comes into being. What most people
don't realize and miss the truth of here is that living according to God's
direction and his promises is certain to result, by itself,I is certain to
result in great rewards...if not in this life in the next. And, the most
beautiful part of it is that the next life is already contained in the
present moment we experience in this one.

"For even as the Father has life in Himself and is self-existent, so He has
given His Son to have life in Himself and be self-existent." 5:26
..."this is because He is a " Son of Man(very man)"
Note that the Bible does not say Jesus is self-existent because He is the Son
of God (which He is) but because He carries all of us with Him in His soul
and spirit. Also, it says elsewhere.5:27
The good God has created languages in us that are to be read (understood) as
they move from right to left(Hebrew)and also as they move from left to right
(Sanskrit or European based). Therefore for some one of us to be the Son of
Man and judge us He needs to be able to comprehend both kinds of linguistic
Truth. in the time of Jesus much of the theory of spiritual continuation
through the words we speak had to do with meditating on phonetic sounds and
the meaning of letters of the alphabet. In Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism this
is still true. it is called Tantra or Kabballah. The Jewish Tantra is
determined by how the 22 letters and ten sefirah are placed in the 32 paths
of God's tree of life. These paths in turn correspond to the Hebrew verses of
the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis.(cf Book of Formation and also
blog postings on our website http://www.ourprayergroup.blogspot.com). If you
study the scheme of the Rabbi called ARI there are five metaphysical
dimensions in the Tree of Life. The GRA users only four. The 10 sefiroh which
form the nodes or wells of being and also the letters were known to Jesus and
his disciples and studied by them. The philosophical explanation of how the
10 sefiroh exist as objects of knowledge (monads) was organized logically by
the Christian Jewish mathematician G. F. Leibniz in his book Monadology (
available on kindle for 2 or 3 dollars). This philosophy is closely connected
with what later became Christian Science theology. It should be interesting
to those who know a little computer mathematics that monads as well-defined
objects of functional programming/knowledge engineering have now been defined
by computer scientists.Nowadays, a monad is a programming structure that
represents part of a computation ( see wikepedia.org articles on this).

But..."God has given His Son the right to judge because He is the Son of
Man."...not because He is the Son of God. Not because He knows any particular
viewpoint, but becuase He kows them all. There are very few who understand
all languages. theBible tells us that the third person of the trinity has
this gift to give us.But, we must take the trouble to learn. Otherwise,if we
try to judge knowing only one Scripture,we shall fall short...just as the
Jews who tried to judge Jesus only only from a Hebrew perspective fell short
when they condemned Him This was because He represented all of humanity
before God, not just them, not just a part of it.

Chapter 6

What is this bread of Life which is the body of Jesus?

God's substance is not God's Truth. Both substance and truth have reality but
they are not the same. Reality is something you can interact with, through
experiment or faith (it kicks back).
But, divine Substance is made up of consciousness,love,mind,will,action.
Truth is a form(kind of) of correspondence between two kinds of reality.(from
the perspective of a relative or absolute, subjective or objective, knowledge)

As Charles Fillmore explains in his book, “Talks on Truth” there is something
called spiritual truth which is a correspond between what is (exists in one
realm or time ) and what is (exists in another realm) in different spiritual
worlds or times. Aristotle, in fact, has defined truth this way, “A
correspondence between what “is” and what “is”. So, in tis sense Jesus Christ
is the Truth just in some mysterious sense that his body and his blood is the
Truth.

As Saint Paul has said the body of Christ has a belt of righteousness and a
helmet of salvation that the believer puts on when he enters it. This body of
righteousness is what the Buddhists call the Dharmakaya and what Jews refer
to when children pray in the evening to have the four archangels surround
them: 1) Ariel is The Light of the One Truth increasing 2) Gabriel is the
Light of the One Truth without a second, 3) Raphael is the Light of the One
Truth transforming and rebirthing the itself, 4) Michael is the Light of the
discrimination between the human and the divine Truth.
The Helmet of Salvation is mindfulness of the Truth as four Jnanas and four
formless concentrations(four wisdoms or four establishments of mindfulness
and four perspectives or points of reference) 1) mindfulness of the body in
the body, 2) mindfulness of emotions in emotions, 3) mindfulness of the mind
in the mind, 4) mindfulness of objects of the mind as objects of the mind.

1) awareness of the limitlessness of space…world without end 2)
awareness of the limitlessness of consciousness…divine mind 3) awareness of
freedom of will and thought inside of Christ…salvation 4) awareness of
freedom from perception or non-perception…eternal nature of the soul

"Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood will have eternal life( and I will
raise him or her up on the last day)".. A mystery which is hard to understand
but which I believe.

Chapter 7

Feast of Succos(when we dwell and eat outside in booths or tabernacles)
"Be honest in your judgement and do not judge but appearances, but judge
fairly...mercifully, truthfully" 7:24 Thus Merciful judgement(forgoveness)is
according to Christianity, Another interpretation of what Truth is. Judaism
also, since the time of Moses has taught that His (Moses) prayers at Rosh
Hashanah in the Book of Exodus (book of Micah 9 attributes of mercy instead
of 13) asks God to judge us mercifully instead of using a stricter standard
of what is right.So this depiction of Judaism comes basically from a Gentile
misconception of what the laws of Moses are (the old covenant)

Chapter 8


Is Jesus Christ the Truth, or are Abraham's descendants the Truth? Some
people say that the Bible is the absolute Truth (and indeed it is). But, God
Our Heavenly Father has put more absolute Truth inside of every human who
walks on earth today than He ever put in the Bible. The Living Truth inside
of every one of us has more Living Truth than there is in the Bible ( and
there is Living Truth in the Bible). Absolute Truth stands on it own, as
opposed to relative truth which is contingent on the world or others. Each
one of us that God has created was created to stand on our own. The problem
is that due to our original sin it is often very hard to do this. But, Jesus
Christ (Christ Jesus) has defeated original sin for us if we accept his
accomplishment as a part of our own heritage. "For even as the Father has
life in Himself and is self-existent, so He has given His Son to have life in
Himself and be self-existent." 5:26

This is the Gospel of Truth that Jesus said about in this chapter that " You
shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free!"

Chapter 11,12

How can we,like Jesus, be the resurrection and the life?

Jesus Christ through divine words and divine faith resurrected the soul and
spirit of his friend, the brother of his friend and follower Mary. He did not
pray to God inside of the Jewish Church of his day in order to do this,He
prayed to God inside of Himself. The. God that dwelled inside of Him (YHWH
ELOHIM EL CHAI)as three persons...a Father in heaven, A Son on earth (His
Self), a Spirit of Truth, inside of the others around Him and also Himself.
This Trinity of God inside of us all is the same God that dwells in each of
us today. Are the principles of God's will of eternal for us all and for the
authority of us His Children to speak His Truth and will into existence any
different for ant of us today than for Him then? We must each of us answer
this question for ourselves.

A. J. Gordon, my great grandfather, has explained in his Calvinist
Baptist professional theological book, The Twofold Life, how the Holy Spirit
which Jesus Christ promised his disciples in Chapters 11,12,13,14 can be
the “resurrection and the life”.

fourteen affirmations to help God realize the Christ that is already present
in you:


1)The Holy Spirit being part of one in three and a three in one personal God
is God our Father!
2)The Holy Spirit is God His Son, Jesus Christ!
3)The Holy Spirit is God the realization in us of these two prior divinites!
4)The Holy Spirit is God’s Twofold self and Truth in us!
5)The Holy Spirit is God’s Twofold Eternal Life in us!
6)The Holy Spirit as God regenerates and renews us!
7)The Holy Spirit as God converts and consecrates us!
8)The Holy Spirit as God saves and seals us!
9)As Christians and Jews, being a part of the person of God’s Holy Spirit We
are ourself God’s Son and in communion with Him!
10We can and should go forward carrying this Holy Spirit guided by His
righteousness and holiness to be Him to others!
11) Doing this We learn about what Peace with God means and we are the Peace
of God!
12) This Peace of God is God’s grace and its own reward!
13) Experiencing this, when we praise God afterwards, God’s Holy Spirit in us
itself is power for Sonship, it is power for service!
14) God’s Holy Spirit in us is our ideal and its attainment.

Praise God, Praise God, Praise God, Thanks be to Thee my Spiritual Ancestor
and Sustainer
Praise God, Praise God, Praise God, Thanks be to Thee my Protector Advocate,
and Supporter
Praise God, Praise God, Praise God, Thanks be to Thee my Good Shepherd and
Saviour
Praise God, Praise God, Praise God. Thanks be to Thee who Overwatches and
Upholds my deeds.



Jesus knew He came from God and was/is going to God. Do you?

Chapter 13

What did our Lord do when He knew it was time for Him to die? He set the
example for us! He washed the feet of His follows...us. The people who follow
the Hindu/Vedantic Gods have prayers for followers of their Gods to pray at
the feet of their teachers (in whom, in these positions they believe, these
Gods dwell in Spirit and in Truth, as angels. They believe this devotional
worship will result in spiritual gifts and powers to the devotee similar to
those promised to Christians in the first chapters of the Book of
Revelations. These wondelful gifts do exist for those that seek them. Truth
in these promises is propagated through Scriptural stories, worship
liturgies, mantras. We have no reason to think God does not want this to
happen for these people He loves very much. But, Wisely, Yogis teach in the
books on Yoga by Patanjali that it is a danger for the devotee put too much
desire unto these practices. For, they can become karmic traps in themselves.
"Salutation to thee, O geat Yogi! Pray direct me that have fallen at Thy
feet, so that I may find unfailing delight at Thy lotus feet" page 75
Swami Vishn-Devananda, " Meditation and Mantras.

How much more wise and helpful, is it for Jesus to teach His devotees that it
is He who should wash their feet? Saint John also says elsewhere in His
Gospel that we should receive spiritual gifts and powers but that they can
become dangerous if we don't offer it all up to The glory of God (as Jesus
did) and not to ourselves or our Individual Churches.




Chapter 14


Twofold teachings in the Gospels about “who is our Self?”
and “what is the Truth?”


In the Gospels Jesus Christ has given us two different teachings about who is
our self. In three of the gospels He has said, These are my commands, (they
are very simple): 1) Love God, 2) Love others as your Self. But, in the
Gospel of John when he speaks to his disciples He has said, in a little while
o
you shall miss me, then in a little while I shall return. “Then, you will
know Me as a friend”. What is the difference between a ‘Self’ and a ‘Friend’.
One might think that knowing our Self is more important to us than loving and
knowing others as our Friends. But, if you contemplate more deeply what Jesus
has said you will realize a wonderful Truth about it: Jesus has told those
who know Him less (those who souls are to be saved…that is, haven’t been
yet) that they are His self. But, He has told those who know Him best (His
disciples whose souls are already pre-existing and saved and redeemed) that
they are not His self…they are His friends?
Why is it more important to us to know our Self first? This is because of a
civil rights teaching I remember from growing up in Mississippi in the 1950s
and 1960s: if “One of us is not free he, none of us is free.” Why is it
important to treat those close to us with respect but not necessarily as our
self. This is because we can’t make any progress together if we don’t
criticize each other and discuss things with each other as “friends” more
than just trying to be identical copies (all believing the same things) of
someone we respect a lot or of each other.
A friend is more valuable than the Self, because, I have found, often, the
Self is in the same miserable condition as you are. But, working together
with friend, we can improve our Selves.
And, what is the purpose toward which we are trying to improve each other?
Jesus Christ has said, “For this and for this alone I have come into this
World, to serve (to witness or observe the Truth, to contemplate it (the
Truth),to realize it (the Truth) .” And, what: is the Truth?

Chapter 18

Here again there are two different blessed teachings we have learned from Him
in the Gospels. 1) In Chapter 18 of the Book of John To those who are
persecuting Him (eg Pontius Pilate, that young Roman Army officer, acting as
an instrument of a corrupt state, and who didn’t yet understand who Jesus
was. Pontius Pilate was just trying to do what he thought was the expedient
to do in order to find order or to keep order(ie in Latin the word expedient
means ‘running away from a problem’ killing others, or allowing others we
have charge of to kill others is always only an ‘expedient’ solution to any
problems we are facing it never solves anything and most often makes the
problem worse) . This was what had worked up to this time in order to get him
promoted. He thought because, in his role as supposed leader, he had the
instruments of power of the state in his hands that he was stronger and more
powerful than this person who was brought before him to be judged and
appeared weak and subject to him). To him Jesus said, “You are the Truth”.
But, elsewhere in the Gospel of John(14:6), to His disciples, those who were
following Him closely and living with Him, He said. “I AM the Truth”. And He
also said in chapter 14 that "there was another" who is the Truth (14:7) And
in chapter 1 verse 15 we are told about the Word that comes from both the
Father and the Son, that it is full of Grace and Truth. This Twofold Truth
and Threefold Truth are what we are to have a purpose to witness to (18:37).
Here
again the divine order of this thinking can be as hard to comprehend as to
why Jesus called those who didn’t know Him His Self, and those who did, His
friends. But, you who are reading and studying this shall learn and
understand all this in time. For it is the “Truth” of the Gospel.