Dan,
"Acts 9:
1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest
2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
sorry , had to make one comment here, Darrin mentioned that Saul/Paul was a follower of the Way, and organization long before Christ, seems as if Saul/Paul is going to punish those who belong to the Way...hhmmmmmm."
Dan, continue to read Paul, and it may come to you. You will see that Paul says that he himself is imprisoned. If you read my reply to Santiago on this matter, you would see that Paul does not speak to the congregation of the world without, but to the congregation of the world within. Paul is speaking of the process of self honesty and true judgement which is necessary to bring out the Christos within. At each point in our lives, we are a different person. We learn and change. At each moment, there are conflicting ideas within us, and we are always choosing among them. If this were not true, we would remain infants. Paul represents one of those phases within himself. He is speaking of the process of judging the progress of ones soul according to absence of sin, and accordance with God. You once did not believe in Christ. Were did that doubter go? You sent him away and went with the one who Knew. Paul knows that he is not the one, because he sees himself as still full of sin. But he knows because he sees that he is full of sin, that the Christos within him will arrive soon, and he is but paving the way.
When Paul finally stopped believing in sin, vengeance, and death, these scales fell from his eyes, and he saw the Christos. Paul is the one who sees through the eyes of sin. SOUL is the one who does not, and in so doing sees light and love. In this way, it is Saul within Paul who sees the Christos within himself. Christos is like the word Chrysalis, which is the husk shed by a pupa when we becomes a butterfly. The disciples are merely those stages we all have to go through to shed the mantle of sin. Paul speaks directly of the inner struggle we must all go through to become a better person. Itis easy to see this as an historical dialogue. The way we have lived our lives has been 'easy'. Jesus and Paul/Saul/Soul show us a better way. Paul believed that sinners were to be punished. Jesus and the one Paul was to become (soul) realized that sinning does not make us evil, because if we knew better we would not do it "they know not what they do". Sin, therefore, is a learning experience, and in learning, we will not repeat it. If we merely seek 'not' to do it without understanding why, then it has served no purpose. If one condemns himself for his sins, them he has sent himself to Hell on Earth, or taken himself prsioner, as Paul would say. The lesson of Paul is to show us the way to get beyond the focus that we are sin and evil, because as long as that is what we see, we will not see the light and sons of God that we are. It requires much self honesty, which can be a bit painful. Are you sure that you really cannot see the inner dialogue of which Paul speaks, or are you simply not being honest with yourself?
I admit this has been difficult for me. It is sometimes painful to look within oneself, identify the voices and memories that preach belief in sin, and to lock them away. When they are all imprisoned, all darkness is gone, and only light remains. Then the Christos within us is revealed, and he heals all who came before, and releases them from their bonds, restored.
At this point, we have a choice that requires great responsibility. Now that we see what we were, and what we have become, we can choose to remain as we are, or return to that which we were.
Peace,
Darrin |
