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[from ftp://ftp.caw.org/caw/scionessays/silverbear.essay ] Eric J. HeBert, 3rd Circle Subject: THE MESSIANIC CONCEPT AND IT'S COMMONALITY WITHIN JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM An Essay for Admission into 4th Circle of the Church of All Worlds Religion, as a historical institution, has several common ingredients: Answeri ng questions about where we came from; why are we here; what happens after we die; how should we d eal with the other beings sharing the universe with us; and what will happen if we follow th ese "instructions." One of the basic ingredients of religion was expressed by Nathan Ausubel in "Th e Book of Jewish Knowledge" as such: "Almost every people of ancient times, when faced w ith the bitter frustrations of life, spun for itself a dreamlike Utopia to yearn for, a 'golde n age' to await." Not the personal 'carrot at the end of the stick' example in Christianity's, as wel l as others, proffering if you live the life we tell you then you shall go to Heaven, but the universal 'everything will be all right in the end'. This ideal satisfies our worldly concern that our prese nt conditions are inadequate. For if all goes according to plan, the Great Redemption will come a nd place the world into the ideal place of our dreams. Judeo-Christianity, as well as many f orms of Paganism, have express notions about how and what this Global Jackpot will pay off. The Messiah is the Judeo-Christian herald of the arrival of this 'golden age.' In Judaism, the Messiah will come and establish the Kingdom of God on Earth (as opposed to heaven as the Christians would have it). This kingdom would be inclusive of al l peoples as long as they accept the One True God and His torah. The medieval rabbinical savant, Maimonides, expressed in the Mishneh Torah the general view of believing Jews concerning th e Kingdom of God: "In that era, there shall be neither famine nor war, neither jealously no r strife. Blessings will be abundant, comforts within reach of all. The one preoccupation of the w hole world will be to know God." (This battle cry of zealots, the preoccupation to know God an d the single obsession with their religious tenets, has been the downfall of most great moti vated causes.) In the words of Isaiah ben Amoz (8th century BCE), Isaiah 2:2 states..."That the m ountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the top of the mountains,..." Hmm, sure so unds like Greek influences showing through to me. Does Mount Olympus ring a bell. The prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures showed the Messiah as coming in two dif ferent roles. One was "humble, and riding upon an ass," whereas the other was "with the cloud s of the heavens" to annihilate opposers and have all rulerships serve Him. (Zech. 9:4; Dan. 7:13) The entomology of the word Messiah, is from the Hebrew root verb ma-shahh', mea ning "to smear," and so "to anoint." Messiah (ma-shíahh) means "anointed" or "anointed one." The Greek equivalent is Krisstos' or Christ. There are many references to the adje ctive Messiah used in the early parts of the Torah. Several Judaic Kings, such as David and Solomon, were considered messiah, "anointed ones." It was not until the latter parts was the word used as a noun to indicate "He who is coming." In Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth had come to be the Christos, but was rejecte d by the Jews of the time. Since the "fact" that the Messiah had to suffer and die was not reco gnized by most Jews, this point was stressed by early Christians when preaching to Jews. (Act s 3:18, 17:1-3, 26:21-23) Jesus sends assurances to John the Baptist that he is truly "He that should come." This is taken to mean the Messiah. Jesus performs many miracles and feats that his disciples take to be proof that He has fulfilled the Jewish Prophecies. Jesus was resurr ected two days after his death and spent forty more days here on earth training his apostles to spre ad his gospel. We have been promised that He will return again, an event commonly known to be The Second Coming of Christ. Upon His return, those who "died in Christ" would return to heaven with him. Also at this time Jesus would have one final battle with the forces of evil, Ma nifest in the Devil, and banish these forces from the universe forever. As the Jews await the coming of the Messiah to herald the arrival of the golden age of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, and as the Christians believe He has come and shall return to purge the universal of all evil, we the Pagans do portend to have a similar out look in which we would endeavor to create our Utopian Society with the sweat off our own backs. How many retreats have been created, even if it was for only a weekend, to express our m ost basic feelings that we could all live in harmony and with love. This was the way I related to this concept up until I read Anodea Judith's article, "The Gaean Conspiracy" in Green Egg #100. As she had put forth that "Gaea is not only alive, She is conscious," Anodea goes on to say, " It is a recognition of the evolutionary process that must take place as our planetary being awakens to a more integrated, self-reflexive state of global consciousness. I put forth that thi s burgeoning consciousness is our Messiah awakening. There was no need to await for the Com ing. She has been here all the time and as we are Her consciousness manifest, She is now bec oming aware. I do put forth that the Gaean Conspiracy is a messianic principle in concept. All the work that we have been doing all along has been our attempts to underst and the direction of Gaea's Evolutionary thrust so that we may become partners in Her growth. As Gaea is the Goddess of the Church of All Worlds it has become part of our mission to actual ize the reuniting of Her children through tribal community dedicated to responsible stewardship a nd evolving consciousness. For what better should be in the forefront of our minds but wha t kind of world do we wish to have our Mother see when she wakes up. In the same way our mothe rs would get pissed if we made a mess in the kitchen making breakfast, can you imagine what the Great Mother is going to say about the mess we made on this planet? The certainty of the fate of the world gives the individual the confidence of c orrect choice in confirming that everyone will come to the same conclusions about the universe a s you did. This Confidence of Correct Choice leads to prostletysing. If you believe, fundament ally, that everyone will come to the way of thinking and since the way of thinking that yo u have chosen with the utmost care and scholorship is the greatest thing since sliced bread a nd canned beer, then it would be the most kind and considerate thing to convince as many people as you can of the inevitable universal outcome, and it's more compationate to do it sooner th an later.Even when our pagan beliefs are based on conclusions of an experiential nature rathe r than empirical data. One theory I have of the impending Christian Apocalypse as foretold in the Book of Revelations, is that the Gaean Awakening would be the destruction of all that is Christian. It would be the end of the universe as they know it. The Spanish Inquisition in the Middle-Age s may have had more wisdom then some have given them credit. For they might have been correct in their assertion that the pagans of the time, the European Witches, were the embodimen t and manifestation of the anti-Christ. We could very well be the instrument for the abolition of the Judeo-Christian world view. As someone who was raised a Jew, as one who has been inundated by Christianity from being a citizen of this country, and as one who has found the comforts of home in Pagan ism, I have reach certain conclusions and have created some biases. My research for this p aper has been distasteful. The Christian writings I have consulted have left me with a sour stomach and a headache time and time again. The authors constant insisting of their Ultimate Correctness disgusts me. I have long ago so stipulated that the Christians have accepted J esus of Nazareth as the Christos. My personal ambivalence to the existence, nee the very need for, the Messiah leads me to say "So what!" If at the center of Christian faith is that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior, why are all of the Christians texts I've encountered, which are written for their fellow Christians to read, so obsessive over convincing the reader of these facts. Wh om are they trying to convince? Themselves? Why do they insist on preaching to the converted? I , as an outsider, view this stance of theirs as a position of doubt, of lack of confidence and of lack of faith.
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