| rosicrucianU.com | ||
| Simplified Scientific Christianity |
Christ, Lord of the Sun and Regent of Earth, belongs not to time, but to eternity. He Himself declared, "I and my Father are one," and "Before Abraham was, I Am."
Athanasius, an early Church Father, stated expressly that Christ is both Maker and Lord of the Sun. "Our Lord the Sun" is an expression that was used in Church prayers up to the fifth or sixth century A.D., and it was embodied in the Liturgy until altered to read "Our Lord the God."
Genesis relates in algebraic brevity the story of creation. St. John, the most profound interpreter of the Christ in His cosmic aspect, declares that this divine Being was present at the beginning of creation, and that everything came into existence through His creative activity. This subject is greatly elaborated by Lactantius, a fourth century commentator. As he was not a theologian but a rhetorician, he was never given a place among Church leaders — a fact which makes his comments more significant in some respects.
Since God had perfect providence in counsel and perfect wisdom in action before He began upon this work of the world that good might rise out of Him like a stream, and flow in a long course, He produced a Spirit like unto Himself which was endued with the Power of God, His Father. God, therefore, when He began to frame the world appointed this His first and highest Son over the whole work, and at the same time appointed Him both as an adviser and creator in devising, arranging and completing all things since He is perfect in providence and reason and power. God therefore, the contriver and appointer of all things before He began upon this beautiful fabric of the world, begat an holy and incorruptible Spirit, whom He called His Son.
In his Epitome of the Institutions, Lactantius develops this same theme still further. He writes:
God in the beginning, before He created the world, begat Himself from the fountain of His own eternity, and from His own divine and everlasting spirit a Son who was incorruptible, faithful, corresponding to the power and majesty of His Father. This is the Power, the Reason, the Word and the Wisdom of God . . . taken into a partnership of supreme power . . . for all things were made by Him and without Him nothing.
The following extract from a letter issued by the Council of Antioch gives the belief of the early Church, probably current from the time of the Apostles: "We acknowledge that the only begotten Son is the invisible God, begotten before all creation, the Wisdom and Word and Power of God, who was before the worlds . . . as we know Him in the Old and New Testaments. But if anyone should contend that we make two Gods if we preach the Son of God to be God, we consider such an one to depart from the ecclesiastical canon . . . We believe that He always was with the Father, and fulfilled His Father's will in the creation of the universe. Then the Council quotes John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16 to show that the world was created by Christ as "really existing, acting, being at once the Word of God by whom the Father made all things . . . Nor was the Son a spectator only, or merely present, but actually efficient for the creation of the universe. It was He who, fulfilling His Father's counsel, appeared to the Patriarchs . . . "
Barnabas, a leading disciple of St. Paul, states in his apocryphal Epistle that "the Lord endured to suffer for our sins, though He is the Lord of the world to whom God said before the constitution of the world . . . let us make man after our own likeness and similitude; and let him have dominion over the beasts of the earth, and over the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea. And when the Lord saw the man which he had formed, that behold he was very good, he said, Increase and multiply and replenish the earth. And thus he spoke to his son."
The early Fathers, some of whom received their teaching direct from the original Twelve, avowed the necessity for this resplendent Sun Being taking upon Himself human guise in order that man might make direct contact with Him. Referring to the Sun Spirit, Irenaeus, a celebrated Father of the Greek Church of the second century, says that "he might have come to us in his own incorruptible glory, but we could not have home the greatness of his glory." Also Origen, another Greek Father (185-253 A.D.), wrote: "Who (the Word) being in the beginning with God, became flesh that he might be comprehended by those who were not able to look at him, in that he was the Word, and was with God and was God. " And Origen adds further: "Coming down once to that which was not able to look at the dazzling brightness of his divinity, he became in manner flesh."
To again quote Lactantius: "Scriptures teach that the Son of God is the Word or Reason of God," and adds as substantiation: "If anyone wonders that God should be begotten of God by putting forth of the voice and breath, he will cease to wonder if he knows the sacred sayings of the prophets.
Tertullian, a celebrated ecclesiastical writer and another Father of the Latin Church (150-250 A.D.), explains: "God could not have entered into conversation with man unless he had assumed human feelings and affections, by which he could temper the greatness of his majesty, which would have been intolerable to human weakness . . . but necessary for man."
St. Clement of Rome, who lived in the first century A.D. and is said to have been the third Bishop of Rome after St. Paul, affirms of the Chirst: "Who being the brightness of His majesty is so much higher than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name."
The Lord Christ is the most advanced of the Archangels, who are one stage higher in evolution than the Angels. In the apocryphal Book of Hennes (2nd century A.D.) appears the statement: "The Son of God is more ancient than any created thing, so that he was present in counsel with his Father at the creation." God the Father is the highest Initiate of the Hierarchy of Sagittarius, the Lords of Mind. The Lord Christ is the highest Initiate of the Hierarchy of Capricorn, home of the Archangels.
This great Being was with the Father in the days of creation; and it was in the Second Creative Day, the Sun Period, that He dedicated Himself to serve as Regent of earth and Saviour of mankind. Thus it may be seen how these two glorious Beings worked harmoniously in the creation of this planet and all that exists therein. The original twelve Disciples, together with their disciples as referred to by the Church Fathers of the first three centuries, were Initiates able to study the Akashic Records (the Memory of Nature) wherein these truths were indelibly inscribed.
Hence, St. Paul refers to Christ in Colossians 1:15 as "the firstborn (first begotten) of every creature." We gather from this that Paul was saying Christ Himself was not created, but that He existed before creation; in other words, that He was self-existent with the Father. Justin Martyr, a first century Greek Father, expressly names the Christ as the "first begotten of God, and before all created things." Origen makes a similar statement, indicating that the doctrine regarding the cosmic nature of the Christ was a general teaching among founders of the early Church. Says Origen, placing these words in the mouth of God: "I have begotten thee before every reasonable creature"; and adds: "Christ was the image of the invisible God begotten before every creature, and is incapable of death."
The Christ theme, like a beautiful symphony, sounds throughout the Old Testament and is echoed in writings of the first Christian votaries. According to both Tertullian and Irenaeus, it was Christ who spoke with Adam in the Garden of Eden. Irenaeus also declares it was the Christ who counseled Noah in reference to the destruction by flood.
— Corinne Heline
|
|
|
|
|
Contemporary Mystic Christianity |
|
|
|
This web page has been edited and/or excerpted from reference material, has been modified from it's original version, and is in conformance with the web host's Members Terms & Conditions. This website is offered to the public by students of The Rosicrucian Teachings, and has no official affiliation with any organization. | Mobile Version | |
|
