Theosis: Introduction

by Tom Minkler

Over the last two millennia, Christianity has come up with a certain way of understanding God, Jesus, life, death, our relationships with God and each other, existence in general and everything else. Supposedly this idea of reality is based on what we call the Bible and what it says. Or is it? Or is what the Bible says based on reality to begin with? And does the Bible really say what we have decided we think it says? What do we think it says anyway?

Everyone does not agree on exactly what the document we call the "Bible" says to begin with, even all Christians do not agree with how accurate it is or what exactly it says. There are thousands of different denominations and individual congregations and they all believe somewhat different things. Even within each denomination people do not agree exactly on the exact meaning of everything in the Bible, or even the meaning of everything Jesus says. How could we, when we can't even agree on what kind of music to listen to?

Just for fun, try this quiz with someone from your church or religious group and see if your answers match:
1. Is everything in the Bible exactly, specifically true?
2. Does everything in the Bible have only one possible real interpretation?
3. Are the creation narratives starting in Genesis I actual factual accounts, or stories that explain a more real and comprehensive actuality?
4. Are there any irreconcilable contradictions in the Bible?
5. After Jesus came back from the dead did he physically rise (float) up into the sky? Where did his body go after it was out of sight? Did it just vanish….poof!?
6. Is heaven an actual, physical place? If so, where is it and is it there now?
7. Assuming Jesus died for our sins, do we have to do anything to get to heaven, and if so, what specifically?
8. Will human beings have physical bodies in heaven and what will they look like (e.g., what "age" will they be)?
9. How did Jesus get conceived? (Be specific, e.g., did God create a sperm cell out of his spirit and "put" in Mary's vagina or uterus? If so, what specifically is different about that sperm cell than all the other sperm cells that God (and we) created?) What is God's DNA?
10. Is God "male" and what specifically makes him that?
11. Is the term Father that Jesus used for God actual, or figurative? What about when he says God is our father?
12. What exactly is God anyway? If it is "spirit," what exactly is that (e.g., how does it interact with the physical world)?
13. When Jesus says "If you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me," is that figurative or literal?
14. Does anyone on earth have the authority to forgive sins now?
15. When is Jesus coming back and did he know the correct answer to this question?
16. As a Christian are you allowed to criticize or judge other people, and if so, when?
17. Are there any people in the history of the world who never heard about Jesus and if so, how do they get to heaven?
18. Did Jesus ultimately try to die?
19. Did Jesus explain the whole, complete, absolute truth as clearly and completely as he could?
20. What happens to Jews who don't believe that Jesus is the "son" of God?
21. Who decided which writings would be included in the New (or Old) Testament and when did they decide this? And is there uniform agreement on this among all Christians today?

Supposedly there are a few core, "absolute" beliefs that each Christian must believe in order to call themselves a Christian. But are even those realistic according to the Bible? Can we even agree on them? If Jesus is the "son" of God, what does the word "son" actually mean? What does "God" actually mean, according to the Bible? This book will attempt to look at the reality God (I AM) has created and define the meaning of the Bible according to what the Bible actually says, and what we know from our own observation of God's creation. Should or would those two views be different, and/or are they?

Since I do not have the room, nor the knowledge, nor enough paper, to explore the whole "Bible," we will be concentrating on the words Jesus said according to the Gospels, with a bit of a foray into the creation stories of Genesis. This is not meant to be a theoretical exercise in semantics, but a practical, reasonable approach to determining what the Bible, specifically the New Testament, and more specifically, the Gospels, must and do really, truly mean. And I'm not fluent in Greek or Hebrew, so we'll be using references such as Strong's Concordance and other books, commentaries and resources, such as the Internet, to help us understand. I look at this as you and I looking for the truth together, with God's help, not some sort of exposition of my brilliant and omnipotent knowledge of God.

Humanity, and therefore Christianity (because Christians are people too), is limited in its understanding of life, the universe and everything, by our limited perceptions of space and time. By its very nature this understanding is very incomplete (perhaps to the point where we could words like "silly" and "ignorant") when compared with the absolute reality of the omnipotent God and all of its creation. All we have to do see this is compare the differences of opinion over the past 100 years, or even the differences between cultures that exist now. For instance, that women weren't considered competent enough to vote in the U.S.A. until 1920, african-americans were considered second-class citizens (or even another species by some) in the USA until ONE GENERATION ago (not that everyone has even agreed with that yet), the untouchables still are considered trash in India, and considering such views in the last century such as: "if God had meant for man to fly, he would have given him wings." Do we really believe that in the present moment we finally have it exactly right, when less than 100 years ago humanity's views of reality seem, and in some cases were, extremely archaic? 100 years from now won't they think we are archaic? Do we think discoveries such as the earth is round, the earth revolves around the sun instead of the other way around, E=mc2, the theory of relativity (and perhaps evolution?) are the be all and end all of scientific discovery? Those realizations totally changed our views of ourselves in relation to the universe; do we really think that's it? That somehow we are now omnipotent? And actually, the absolute reality is made up of a combination of every single reality, which includes the thoughts and point of view of each individual being in existence. So how close could we ever possibly be to that? We haven't even begun to find.

You may find that along the way, sometimes I might disagree with the "standard" Christian interpretation of what the Gospels, and even Jesus' words, mean. But the purpose of writing this book is not to discount or "disagree" with the Bible, but to find its true meaning. So if I disagree with another interpretation, I am trying to correct a wrong, not create one.

Just for a moment, let's step outside of our man-made world of houses, cars, ledgers, account balances, money, judgments, and rooms in our mind 10 feet high x 13.6 feet x 20.4 feet wide. Get in your man-made car that holds 15.6 gallons of gas and drive past our imaginary boundaries of nation, state, city, suburb or village, past our miles of man-made roads, signs and markers. Park your car and go into the forest, desert, or climb the nearest mountain. Take a deep breath and spend some time in silence. What do you see? In God's natural creation, is there right and wrong? Is there a perfect tree? Is one tree "better" than another? How many leaves are there on the first tree you see (don't forget to count the "partial" leaves)? Is it a round number, or a number at all? 36,497.3484798641385297 leaves? Which rock is most "correctly" shaped? Are the animals wrong for killing each other? Do they have to get married to have sex and if not will they be sent to some horribly eternal punishment? Are we that different from the animals, or is it just opposable thumbs and the capability of abstract thought? How many molecules can you count? Is the water you see "separate" or is it in everything? Can you say anything about water that applies to all of it at once? How many cubic feet of water flow downstream per second? Does anything you see "stop" or "start" is it all flowing, moving, growing, dying, interacting and recycling in one constant, miraculous, never-ending, indefinable stream? Is "God" "moving" things around with his "hands"? Or is everything we see happening before us, the real meaning of that expression? Are you gazing on the face of God at this moment? Or when you look into the eyes of another person, or into the mirror? Or is God (I AM) something completely separate from everything? "God" vs. "not God'? I AM vs. I AM not?

This is my worship, my heart after God, my mind over matter, to use the natural and insatiable curiosity that "he" gave me (and all of us) to search for him outside of the limited, oversimplified diagram full of limitations that we reduce him to in our feeble human minds. They tell us about God when we're children, but do we really ever grow out of that limited concept, that God is this "guy" "up" in the sky, in a "place" we call heaven, and that people who are good, or maybe who believe "in" "him" get to go there. Or that one day, in one big magical "poof," God will destroy everything he so lovingly created so that everyone who has lived up to that point can all go somewhere new that God creates with another "poof" and just be happy forever? Does that really make sense? Or is happiness something more? Is it all something greater, more incomprehensible, more wonderful and all-encompassing than we could ever imagine in our wildest dreams? Is God more likely to resemble the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, or great truths like "trees grow," and "rivers flow"? Can human beings possibly imagine what God really is? What does the face of God really "look" like?

The reason this exercise is important to me is not because of some self-righteous need for everyone to see MY truth, even though of course I think I am “right,” just like everyone else thinks they are. (Part of that is thinking that I'm right in saying that none of us really KNOWS that any of what we believe is true.) The problem is that if Christians have created any misconceptions about God and the Bible, those are stumbling blocks that hinder people from being able to believe the real truth, and we need to remove the extracurricular crap in order not to obscure the simple, basic truths that we all need to know; the truths that will set us free from bondage and enable us to find heaven, wherever it is. Why wouldn't I want to work to cleanse myself of all misconceptions, underestimations and inaccuracies in order to speak the truth more clearly?

Is it possible that real truth might be more like, “rivers flow,” than it is to, “10 gallons of water per second heads downhill at a rate of 20.98647 miles per hour at a width of 5.57843 feet and a depth of 3.09834 feet”? Maybe the truth is, that at a minimum, “God” loves us completely and unconditionally without fail and that Jesus died to show us that, or "realize" it for us. Maybe it's more, or less. Are we all drops of water in an ocean of God? Or is God something completely separate from us? Is anything really separate from anything? Here we will attempt to "divine" what the Bible and God's creation really say.

My last key point, before we dive in, is that I am not necessarily saying the thoughts expressed here or the conclusions we may reach are definitely "right," but that they are POSSIBLE, without changing the inherent meaning of the Bible. For instance, that it might be possible to disagree in some ways with the "standard" Christian interpretation that has been created over the years, without precluding a wholehearted belief in the Bible and Jesus the Christ. Can we believe in evolution and still wholeheartedly believe in God, Jesus Christ, The Bible and everything Christianity stands for? Or would it be impossible NOT to? We'll examine that issue along with many others. If you don’t agree with the material in this book I strongly suggest you use it as “weight resistance” and motivation to develop strength and knowledge of your own personal faith. Of course, by reading only things that we already agree with, we will never really grow.

The Good News According To Jesus

As mentioned above we will attempt to focus on the words of Jesus themselves. For some chapters or topics, I will include a collection of everything Jesus said about that subject, as a basis for analysis. Ultimately the whole New Testament and everything that Christianity is must be based directly on the words (and actions) of Jesus, after all, that is the definition of Christianity itself. The apostle Paul, along with other disciples and followers, wrote a lot of letters to early Christian churches that are included in today's "Bible," and much of Christianity's eventual beliefs and theology is influenced by, even based on Paul's explanation and analysis of what Jesus' life means. Paul didn't know Jesus personally and he wasn't around to see anything that Jesus said or did. Anything Paul actually knows about the actual life of Jesus had to come from what was being told to him by those who knew Jesus or what had been told to others by them, or revealed to him by God in some way, including through people. This information was initially shared in verbal form but was eventually written down, which is not to claim that it couldn't necessarily still be completely "accurate," whatever that means

Any information about the words or life of Jesus that could have been known by Paul and was important enough to mean anything should have been included in the books about the Jesus' life, the Gospels (= "Good News"). Is there any reason to believe the writers of the Good News would have left out any information that was known or remembered by them? We have little enough information as it is. And anything Paul wrote that wasn't directly based on what he heard about the actual words of Jesus has to come from himself or from the inspiration of God. In other words, is there any real reason to believe it should carry any greater weight than anything written by anyone else inspired by God since Paul? You could say that maybe God revealed special things to Paul that should be included in the Bible. But is there any real reason to believe that God's specific, direct revelations stopped when Paul died? Or that his revelations were somehow more important than anyone else's since then? If so, then we shouldn't be listening to anyone who preaches now, because anything they say is already in the Bible.

I am not saying by any means that we should ignore what Paul has to say; after all, he was there, claimed or appeared to be inspired by God in some way, and had insights into the time, settings and many of the historical contexts in which Christianity began. But whether or not you believe that Paul has some special insight that nobody else has ever had, the basis for Christianity must start with the words of Jesus. Nothing Paul says should contradict Jesus, and whatever Paul said or wrote is secondary, because it is dependent upon, the life of Jesus. After all, Christianity is not "Paulianity," although there exist Pauline versions of Christianity. So if we're going to start somewhere, it must be with the words of Jesus. The main reason I am focusing on the words of Jesus is to focus our discussion, so that it can fit into one book. Which, of course, is not really true since there have been hundreds of thousands of books written about it, and we've only just begun.

Go to Part 2: What is God?