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References: Matthew 1, 2, 3; Luke 1, 2.
To understand the Mission of Christ as the Founder of the Universal Religion of the future, it is necessary that we first become familiar with His exact nature, and incidentally, with that of Jehovah, Who is the head of such Race religions as Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc.; also with the identity of "The Father," to Whom Christ is to give up the Kingdom, in due time.
In the Christian creed occurs this sentence: "Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God." This is generally understood to mean that a certain person Who appeared in Palestine about 2,000 years ago, Who is spoken of as Jesus Christ — one separate individual — was the only begotten Son of God.
This is a great mistake. There are three distinct and widely different Beings characterized in this sentence. It is of the greatest importance that the student should clearly understand the exact nature of these Three Great and Exalted Beings — differing vastly in glory, yet each entitled to our deepest and most devout adoration.
Please note in the following diagram (No. 6) that "The only begotten" ("the Word," of Whom John speaks) is the second aspect of the Supreme Being.
This "Word," and It alone is "begotten of His Father (the first aspect) before all Worlds." "Without Him was not anything made that was made," not even the third aspect of the Supreme Being, which proceeds from the two previous aspects. Therefore the "only begotten" is the exalted Being which ranks above all else in the Universe, save only the Power-aspect which created It.
The first aspect of the Supreme Being "thinks out," or imagines, the Universe before the beginning of active manifestation, everything, including millions of solar systems and the great creative Hierarchies which inhabit the Cosmic Planes of existence above the seventh, which is the field of our evolution (see Diagram 6). This is also the Force which dissolves everything that has crystallized beyond the possibility of further growth and at last, when the end of active manifestation has come, reabsorbs within Itself all that is, until the dawn of another Period of Manifestation.
The second aspect of the Supreme Being is that which manifests in matter as the forces of attraction and cohesion, thus giving it the capability of coming into Forms of various kinds. This is "The Word," the "creative Fiat," which molds the primordial Cosmic Root-substance in a manner similar to the formation of figures by musical vibrations, as previously mentioned, the same tone always producing the same figure. So this great primordial "word" brought, or "spoke," into being, in finest matter, all the different Worlds, with all their myriads of Forms, which have since been copied and worked out in detail by the innumerable creative Hierarchies.
"The Word" could not have done this, however, until the third aspect of the Supreme Being had first prepared the Cosmic Root-substance; had awakened it from its normal state of inertia and set the countless inseparate atoms spinning upon their axes, placing those axes at various angles with respect to each other, giving to each kind a certain "measure of vibration."
These varying angles of inclination of the axes and the measures of vibration made the Cosmic Root-substance capable of forming different combinations, which are the basis of the seven great Cosmic Planes. There is, in each of these planes, a different inclination of the axes, and also a different measure of vibration, consequently the conditions and combinations in each one are different from those in any of the others, due to the activity of "The Only Begotten."
Diagram 14 shows us that:
"The Father is the highest Initiate among the humanity of the Saturn Period. The ordinary humanity of that period are now the Lords of Mind.
"The Son" (Christ) is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period. The ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Archangels.
"The Holy Spirit" (Jehovah) is the highest Initiate of the Moon Period. The ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Angels.
This diagram also shows what are the vehicles of these different orders of Beings, and upon comparison with diagram 8 (in Self-Study Module No. 8), it will be seen that their bodies or vehicles (indicated by squares on diagram 14) correspond to the Globes of the Period in which they were human. This is always the case so far as the ordinary humanities are concerned, for at the end of the Period during which any life wave becomes individualized as human beings, those beings retain bodies corresponding to the Globes on which they have functioned.
On the other hand, the Initiates have progressed and evolved for themselves higher vehicles, discontinuing the ordinary use of the lowest vehicles when the ability to use a new and higher one has been attained. Ordinarily, the lowest vehicle of an Archangel is the desire body, but Christ, Who is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period, ordinarily uses the Life Spirit as lowest vehicle, functioning as consciously in the World of Life Spirit as we do in the Physical World. The student is requested to note this point particularly, as the World of Life Spirit is the first universal World. It is the World in which differentiation ceases and unity begins to be realized, so far as our solar system is concerned.
Christ has power to build and function in a vehicle as low as the desire body, such as is used by the Archangels, but He can descend no farther. The significance of this will be seen presently.
Jesus belongs to our humanity. When the man, Jesus, is studied through the memory of nature, he can be traced back life by life, where he lived in different circumstances, under various names, in different embodiments, the same, in that respect, as any other human being. This cannot be done with the Being, Christ. In His case can be found but one embodiment.
It must not be supposed, however, that Jesus was an ordinary individual. He was of a singularly pure type of mind, vastly superior to the great majority of our present humanity. Through many lives had he trod the Path of Holiness and thus fitted himself for the greatest honor ever bestowed upon a human being.
His mother, the Virgin Mary, was also a type of the highest human purity and because of that was selected to become the mother of Jesus. His father was a high Initiate, virgin, and capable of performing the act of fecundation as a sacrament, without personal desire or passion.
Thus the beautiful, pure and lovely Spirit whom we known as Jesus of Nazareth was born into a pure and passionless body. This body was the best that could be procured on Earth and the task of Jesus, in that embodiment, was to care for it and evolve it to the highest possible degree of efficiency, in preparation for the great purpose it was to serve.
Jesus of Nazareth was born at about the time stated in the historic records, and not 105 B.C., as stated in some esoteric works. The name Jesus is common in the East, and an Initiate named Jesus did live 105 B.C., but he took the Egyptian Initiation, and was not Jesus of Nazareth, with whom we are concerned.
Jesus was educated by the Essenes and reached a very high state of Spiritual development during the thirty years in which he used his body.
It may be said here, parenthetically, that the Essenes were a third sect which existed in Palestine, besides the two mentioned in the New Testament — the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Essenes were an exceedingly devout order, widely different from the materialistic Sadducees and entirely opposite to the hypocritical, publicity seeking Pharisees. They shunned all mention of themselves and their methods of study and worship. To the latter peculiarity is due the fact that almost nothing is known of them, and that they are not mentioned in the New Testament.
It is a law of the Cosmos that no Being, however high, can function in any world without a vehicle built of the material of that world. (See Diagrams 8 and 14.) Therefore the desire body was the lowest vehicle of the Group Spirits who had reached the human stage in the Sun Period.
Christ was One of those Spirits and was consequently unable to build for Himself a vital body and a dense physical vehicle. He could have worked upon humanity in a desire body, as did His younger brothers, the Archangels, as Race Spirits. Jehovah had opened an avenue for them to enter the dense body of man by means of the air he inhaled. All Race religions were religions of law, and creators of sin through disobedience of that law. They were under the direction of Jehovah, Whose lowest vehicle is the Human Spirit, correlating Him to the World of Abstract Thought, where everything is separate and therefore leads to self-seeking.
That is precisely the reason why the intervention of Christ became necessary. Under the regime of Jehovah unity is impossible. Therefore, the Christ, Who possesses as the lowest vehicle the unifying Life Spirit, must enter into the dense human body. He must appear as a man among men and dwell in this body, because only from within is it possible to conquer the Race religion, which influences man from without.
Christ could not be born in a dense body, because He had never passed through an evolution such as the Earth Period, therefore He would first have had to acquire the ability to build a dense body such as ours. But even had He possessed that ability, it would have been inexpedient for such an exalted Being to expend for that purpose the energy necessary for body-building through antenatal life, childhood and youth, to bring it to sufficient maturity for use. He had ceased to use, ordinarily, vehicles such as would correspond to our Human Spirit, mind, and desire body, although He had learned to build them in the Sun Period, and retained the ability to build and function in them whenever desired or required. He used all His vehicles, taking only the vital and dense bodies from Jesus. When the latter was thirty years of age Christ entered these bodies and used them until the climax of His Mission on Golgotha. After the destruction of the dense body, Christ appeared among His disciples in the vital body, in which He functioned for some time. The vital body is the vehicle which He will use when He appears again, for He will never take another dense body.
At the time Christ entered the body of Jesus, the latter was a disciple of high degree, consequently his Life Spirit was well organized. Therefore, the lowest vehicle in which Christ functioned, and the best organized of the higher vehicles of Jesus, were identical; and Christ, when He took the vital body and the dense body of Jesus, was thus furnished with a complete chain of vehicles bridging the gap between the World of Life Spirit and the dense Physical World.
The significance of the fact that Jesus had passed several initiations lies in the effect that has on the vital body. Jesus' vital body was already attuned to the high vibrations of the Life Spirit. An ordinary man's vital body would have instantly collapsed under the terrific vibrations of the Great Spirit who entered Jesus' body. Even that body, pure and high-strung as it was, could not withstand those tremendous impacts for many years, and when we read of certain times when Christ withdrew temporarily from His disciples, as when He later walked on the sea to meet them, the esotericist knows that He drew out of Jesus' vehicles to give them a rest under the care of the Essene Brothers, who knew more of how to treat such vehicles than Christ did.
This change was consummated with the full and free consent of Jesus, who knew during this entire life that he was preparing a vehicle for Christ. He submitted gladly, that his brother humanity might receive the gigantic impetus which was given to its development by the mysterious sacrifice on Golgotha.
Thus (as shown in Diagram 14) Christ Jesus possessed the twelve vehicles, which formed an unbroken chain from the Physical World to the very Throne of God. Therefore He is the only Being in the Universe in touch with both God and man and capable of mediating between them, because He has, personally and individually, experienced all conditions and knows every limitation incident to physical existence. None save He is able to feel such compassion, nor so fully understand the position and needs of humanity. None save He is qualified to bring the relief that shall fully meet our needs. He took the dense and vital bodies of Jesus that He might function directly in the Physical World and appear as a man among men. Had He appeared in a manifestly miraculous manner, it would have been contrary to the scheme of evolution, because at the end of the Atlantean Epoch humanity had been given freedom to do right or wrong. That they might learn to become self-governing, no coercion whatever could be used. They must know good and evil through experience. Before that time they had been led willingly, but at that time they were given freedom under the different Race religions, each Religion adapted to the needs of its particular Tribe or Nation.
See Diagram 6 "The Supreme Being, the Cosmic Planes and God", The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, and Diagram 14 "The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit", The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception.
(You are welcome to e-mail your answers and/or comments to us. Please be sure to include the course name and Independent Study Module number in your e-mail to us. Or, you are also welcome to use the answer form below.)
1. Explain the functions of the three aspects of the Supreme Being.
2. Designate specifically the identity of Christ.
3. State the facts concerning the identity of the man Jesus.
4. Why could Christ not be born in a dense body?
5. What differentiates Christ Jesus from every other Being?
6. Why did Christ not appear in a miraculous manner?
7. In what will He appear when He comes again?
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