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Original sin: Difference between revisions
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In order to support their official decrees raising Jesus to his unique stature as God, the hierarchy of the early Christian church developed several corollary doctrines. One of these is the doctrine of '''original sin'''. This doctrine as it is now taught in the Roman Catholic Church states that as a result of the fall of Adam, every member of the human race is born with a hereditary moral defect and is subject to death. Because of this inherited stain of sin, no man is capable of achieving either his decency or destiny without a saving act of God. This is accomplished, according to the Roman church, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. | In order to support their official decrees raising [[Jesus]] to his unique stature as God, the hierarchy of the early Christian church developed several corollary doctrines. One of these is the doctrine of '''original sin'''. This doctrine as it is now taught in the Roman Catholic Church states that as a result of the fall of Adam, every member of the human race is born with a hereditary moral defect and is subject to death. Because of this inherited stain of sin, no man is capable of achieving either his decency or destiny without a saving act of God. This is accomplished, according to the Roman church, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. | ||
What the Roman church did with their doctrine of original sin is to doom the entire human race to failure except through the saving grace of | What the Roman church did with their doctrine of original sin is to doom the entire human race to failure except through the saving grace of Jesus Christ, which is a law that is not a law of God and cannot be fulfilled as they have so declared it. | ||
== Origins of the doctrine == | == Origins of the doctrine == | ||
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He made Adam a kind of corporate personality who contained the nature of all future men, which he transmitted through his semen. Augustine wrote: “We all were in that one man.” Even though we didn’t yet have physical form, “already the seminal nature was there from which we were to be propagated.”<ref>Augustine, ''City of God'' 13.14, in ''Nicene and PostNicene Fathers'', 1st ser., 2:251.</ref> | He made Adam a kind of corporate personality who contained the nature of all future men, which he transmitted through his semen. Augustine wrote: “We all were in that one man.” Even though we didn’t yet have physical form, “already the seminal nature was there from which we were to be propagated.”<ref>Augustine, ''City of God'' 13.14, in ''Nicene and PostNicene Fathers'', 1st ser., 2:251.</ref> | ||
Thus all of Adam’s descendants are both corrupt and condemned because they were present inside of him (as semen) when he sinned. Augustine described the sin as something that is “contracted”<ref>Augustine, ''Against Julian'' | Thus all of Adam’s descendants are both corrupt and condemned because they were present inside of him (as semen) when he sinned. Augustine described the sin as something that is “contracted”<ref>Augustine, ''Against Julian'' 3.3, trans. Matthew A. Schumacher, ''The Fathers of the Church'', vol. 35 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1957), p. 113.</ref> and passed through the human race like a venereal disease. Jesus was exempt from original sin since, according to the orthodox, he was conceived without semen. | ||
Augustine concluded that as a result of Adam’s sin, the entire human race is a “train of evil” headed for the “destruction of the second death.”<ref>Augustine, ''City of God'' 13.14, in ''Nicene and PostNicene Fathers'', 1st ser., 2:251. See also Rev. 21:8.</ref> Except, of course, those who manage to access God’s grace through the Church. | Augustine concluded that as a result of Adam’s sin, the entire human race is a “train of evil” headed for the “destruction of the second death.”<ref>Augustine, ''City of God'' 13.14, in ''Nicene and PostNicene Fathers'', 1st ser., 2:251. See also Rev. 21:8.</ref> Except, of course, those who manage to access God’s grace through the Church. | ||
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== The Synod of Orange == | == The Synod of Orange == | ||
In the fifth century original sin became the center of a controversy that was eventually settled in 529 | In the fifth century original sin became the center of a controversy that was eventually settled in 529 by the Synod of Orange. The synod decreed that Adam’s sin corrupted the body and soul of the whole human race; sin and death are a result of Adam’s disobedience. The synod also declared that because of sin, man’s free will is so weakened that “no one is able to love God as he ought, or believe in God, or do anything for God which is good, except the grace of divine mercy comes first to him.” They stated that by the grace that comes through the sacrament of baptism, all men, if they work at it, can be saved. Thus, grace and not human merit was primary to salvation. | ||
There was a lot at stake in the outcome of the debate on original sin. The controversy threatened to undermine the role of the Church in the life of the communicant. The Church taught that baptism was the way in which the faithful were initiated into the Church and introduced to grace, and that a life of grace was sustained by the sacraments. If the sacrament of baptism was no longer necessary to wash away original sin and to attain salvation, then the Church and its clergy would be expendable. | There was a lot at stake in the outcome of the debate on original sin. The controversy threatened to undermine the role of the Church in the life of the communicant. The Church taught that baptism was the way in which the faithful were initiated into the Church and introduced to grace, and that a life of grace was sustained by the sacraments. If the sacrament of baptism was no longer necessary to wash away original sin and to attain salvation, then the Church and its clergy would be expendable. | ||
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Catholics today believe that even though the sacrament of baptism washes away original sin, there still remains in man the tendency to sin. This is a self-contradiction. Of what power is the baptism of Jesus Christ without it being fully able to deliver us from the sense of sin? | Catholics today believe that even though the sacrament of baptism washes away original sin, there still remains in man the tendency to sin. This is a self-contradiction. Of what power is the baptism of Jesus Christ without it being fully able to deliver us from the sense of sin? | ||
Today’s ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' says under its entry on “Original Sin” that “the term ''original sin'' designates a condition of guilt, weakness, or debility found in human beings historically, prior to their own free option for good or evil. This is a state of being rather than a human act or its consequence.”<ref>''New Catholic Encyclopedia'', | Today’s ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' says under its entry on “Original Sin” that “the term ''original sin'' designates a condition of guilt, weakness, or debility found in human beings historically..., prior to their own free option for good or evil.... This is a state of being rather than a human act or its consequence.”<ref>C. J. Peter, “Original Sin,” in ''New Catholic Encyclopedia'' (New York: McGraw Hill, 1967), p. 777.</ref> | ||
== A larger perspective on the | == A larger perspective on the Fall of man == | ||
Man and woman, androgynous in the white fire core of their innocence, knew wholeness in the Edenic consciousness. Through the misuse of the Christ Flame they lost their wholeness, and they stood naked before the Lord God. Thus the original sin of the [[Luciferian]]s, which caused first the fall of mankind and then the Fall of Adam and Eve, was the misuse of the [[threefold flame]]—the perversion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. | Man and woman, androgynous in the white-fire core of their innocence, knew wholeness in the Edenic consciousness. Through the misuse of the Christ Flame they lost their wholeness, and they stood naked before the Lord God. Thus the original sin of the [[Luciferian]]s, which caused first the fall of mankind and then the Fall of Adam and Eve, was the misuse of the [[threefold flame]]—the perversion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. | ||
Immediately, Adam and Eve’s misuse of the threefold flame formed a negative spiral that produced the [[electronic belt]]. And the white-fire core of purity (the energy source in Matter, the origin of the threefold flame) was sealed in the Mother chakra, guarded by [[cherubim]] “and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life.”<ref>Gen. 3:24.</ref> | Immediately, Adam and Eve’s misuse of the threefold flame formed a negative spiral that produced the [[electronic belt]]. And the white-fire core of purity (the energy source in Matter, the origin of the threefold flame) was sealed in the Mother chakra, guarded by [[cherubim]] “and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life.”<ref>Gen. 3:24.</ref> | ||
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Unless man and woman, son and daughter, contain within the heart the balanced threefold flame as the focus of the Spirit sphere of their own God-identity, they cannot and do not experience the androgynous nature of God in the plane of Matter. The loss of wholeness in Matter by Adam and Eve resulted in the karma of Eve’s desire being unto her husband and Adam’s desire being unto his wife. Thus, two are required in Matter in order to experience the totality of the Father-Mother God. | Unless man and woman, son and daughter, contain within the heart the balanced threefold flame as the focus of the Spirit sphere of their own God-identity, they cannot and do not experience the androgynous nature of God in the plane of Matter. The loss of wholeness in Matter by Adam and Eve resulted in the karma of Eve’s desire being unto her husband and Adam’s desire being unto his wife. Thus, two are required in Matter in order to experience the totality of the Father-Mother God. | ||
The | The longing of the soul for the androgynous consciousness of Eden produces desire in Matter. The desire for God and for reunion with God as Father or as Mother is holy desire. The manifestation of this desire becomes, then, a necessary component of procreation outside of the Garden of Eden. | ||
In Genesis 4:1 we read for the first time that Adam knew his wife. Sexual intercourse is not the original sin. The original sin is the departure from the Christ consciousness through disobedience to the individual Christ Self within and the Universal Christ Presence manifest in the Guru. Procreation through sex is only one of a number of conditions of the Adamic covenant, conditions of the life of fallen man and fallen woman outside the Garden of Eden. | In Genesis 4:1 we read for the first time that Adam knew his wife. Sexual intercourse is not the original sin. The original sin is the departure from the Christ consciousness through disobedience to the individual Christ Self within and the Universal Christ Presence manifest in the Guru. Procreation through sex is only one of a number of conditions of the Adamic covenant, conditions of the life of fallen man and fallen woman outside the Garden of Eden. | ||
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Sex, therefore, as it is practiced on earth today, is the effect and not the cause of original sin. Sex is not in itself sinful. But mankind have made of the misuses of the sacred fire in sex the greatest sin since their descent from the grace of the garden. This they have accomplished through their willful desecration of the sacred fire in all of the sacred centers of God-awareness (the [[chakra]]s) by fulfilling the lusts of the flesh through disobedience to the Ten Commandments. | Sex, therefore, as it is practiced on earth today, is the effect and not the cause of original sin. Sex is not in itself sinful. But mankind have made of the misuses of the sacred fire in sex the greatest sin since their descent from the grace of the garden. This they have accomplished through their willful desecration of the sacred fire in all of the sacred centers of God-awareness (the [[chakra]]s) by fulfilling the lusts of the flesh through disobedience to the Ten Commandments. | ||
The seven sacraments of the Church | The seven sacraments of the Church are a means whereby man and woman may atone for the misuses of the seven rays. In redeemed man and woman, sexual intercourse becomes the sacred ritual of the sacrament of marriage. This ritual can be purified of the taint of the original sin of disobedience, as well as the secondary sin of lustful desecration of this ritual, through the restoration of the Christ consciousness in man and woman. | ||
== The divine reunion == | == The divine reunion == | ||
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Since sex itself is not the original sin, the virgin birth remains the virgin birth with or without sexual intercourse. Mary’s virgin consciousness is the raising-up of the white sphere of the Mother that in unredeemed man and woman remains locked in the [[base-of-the-spine chakra]]. | Since sex itself is not the original sin, the virgin birth remains the virgin birth with or without sexual intercourse. Mary’s virgin consciousness is the raising-up of the white sphere of the Mother that in unredeemed man and woman remains locked in the [[base-of-the-spine chakra]]. | ||
As that light of the Mother rises, it restores the light of the Trinity to each successive chakra, regenerates the balanced threefold flame within the heart, resurrects the Alpha and Omega wholeness as the white fire core of the seven planes of God’s consciousness, and locks that sphere in the third eye, completing the caduceus. | As that light of the Mother rises, it restores the light of the Trinity to each successive chakra, regenerates the balanced threefold flame within the heart, resurrects the Alpha and Omega wholeness as the white-fire core of the seven planes of God’s consciousness, and locks that sphere in the third eye, completing the caduceus. | ||
Over this spiral of energy, sanctified and made pure by the Body (the Matter) and the Blood (the Spirit) of Christ who “before Abraham was, I AM,” the Son of God became the Word incarnate: Jesus the Christ was born. | Over this spiral of energy, sanctified and made pure by the Body (the Matter) and the Blood (the Spirit) of Christ who “before Abraham was, I AM,” the Son of God became the Word incarnate: Jesus the Christ was born. | ||
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The ascended masters teach that the [[fallen angel]]s are the original sinners, who committed the original sin against God by challenging the [[Divine Mother]] and the Divine Manchild. They have led the children of God into paths of sinfulness in order to convince them that they are “sinners” and hence, unworthy to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. | The ascended masters teach that the [[fallen angel]]s are the original sinners, who committed the original sin against God by challenging the [[Divine Mother]] and the Divine Manchild. They have led the children of God into paths of sinfulness in order to convince them that they are “sinners” and hence, unworthy to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. | ||
The Luciferians propounded the lie that sex is the original sin in order to keep the light of mankind veiled in the sin consciousness, to keep their attention (hence the serpentine force) constantly revolving around sex as the forbidden fruit. The Luciferians did not want mankind to know that it was their rejection of the Christ that caused them to fall | The Luciferians propounded the lie that sex is the original sin in order to keep the light of mankind veiled in the sin consciousness, to keep their attention (hence the [[Kundalini|serpentine force]]) constantly revolving around sex as the forbidden fruit. The Luciferians did not want mankind to know that it was their rejection of the Christ that caused them to fall, for if mankind knew this, they could and would accept the redemption of Jesus the Christ, of the Christ Self and of the Initiator Lord Maitreya. Thus they would return to the glory that they knew in the beginning before the world was. | ||
The fallen angels have kept from the children of God the true understanding that God has endowed each of them with the Divine Image; instead they have taught them that they are forever stained by “original sin” and can never become Christlike or realize their own Christ potential. The fallen angels have thus promulgated the false doctrine that because the children of God are sinners, they can only be saved by grace, dispensed by the Church, thereby denying the necessity for each one to “work the works of him that sent me,” as Jesus declared of his own mission. | The fallen angels have kept from the children of God the true understanding that God has endowed each of them with the Divine Image; instead they have taught them that they are forever stained by “original sin” and can never become Christlike or realize their own Christ potential. The fallen angels have thus promulgated the false doctrine that because the children of God are sinners, they can only be saved by grace, dispensed by the Church, thereby denying the necessity for each one to “work the works of him that sent me,” as Jesus declared of his own mission.<ref>John 9:4.</ref> | ||
God has called us to forsake the sinful life of the fallen angels and to put behind us the sense of forever being sinners. This is made possible by the grace of Jesus Christ, which restores our oneness with him and with our own inner Christ potential. This grace affords us the opportunity to atone for our misdeeds and mistakes and pursue our own path of individual Christhood. | God has called us to forsake the sinful life of the fallen angels and to put behind us the sense of forever being sinners. This is made possible by the grace of Jesus Christ, which restores our oneness with him and with our own inner Christ potential. This grace affords us the opportunity to atone for our misdeeds and mistakes and pursue our own path of individual Christhood. | ||
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[[Virgin birth]] | [[Virgin birth]] | ||
[[Ascension]] | |||
== For more information == | == For more information == | ||
{{RML}}, | {{RML}}, chapter 20. | ||
{{PUC}}, pp. 134–40. | {{PUC}}, pp. 134–40. | ||
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{{PST}}, pp. 145–49. | {{PST}}, pp. 145–49. | ||
{{POWref|33|41|, October 21, 1990}} | {{POWref|33|41|, October 21, 1990, endnote}} | ||
{{PUC}}, pp. 137–38, 139–40. | {{PUC}}, pp. 137–38, 139–40. | ||
<references /> | <references /> | ||