All About Eve - The Role of Women in Christianity

The fall of man supposedly began when Eve was tempted by the serpent and took a bite out of the forbidden fruit from the tree of life. There is truth to the idea that the feminine aspect was related to the fall as we see. However, if taken literally – as it has been for thousands of years – this idea essentially says that fall of mankind was due to Eve in particular and by association all women in general.

It is simply a fact that historically most societies, nations and religions have been dominated by males while women have played a subservient role to men. Why has this been so? Well, I submit that is largely due to the notion that women are to blame for the fall so many eons ago. Thus the idea was born that women are inherently inferior to men. After all, if woman are to blame for the fall, how can they be entrusted to lead others in spiritual, political, family or societal matters? There is also a hidden anger and contempt for women that further reinforces the idea of male superiority where men are somehow seen as the victims of the weaknesses of women who could not resist the temptations of the serpent in the garden. And of course women have historically not only seen as spiritual seductresses but sexual as well. It seems that the concept of original sin is an admixture of both of these concepts.

Due in no small measure to this supposed original sin; women have historically been viewed as unworthy of leadership or equal standing with men. Unfortunately, Christianity like the Jewish and others religions, has done much to cement women in this subservient role. The Catholic Church, for example, has never allowed women to hold ecclesiastical positions of authority in the church, be it priest, bishop, cardinal or pope. They claim this is because they say they can trace their lineage back to Peter as Jesus’ first disciple. And because Peter was a male, this somehow confers God’s exclusive preference for men as spiritual leaders.


Peter as the Foundation for Christianity
In some ways the Catholic Church is correct in saying the Peter was their foundational spiritual leader. Not necessarily because he was Jesus’ closest disciple – as he most likely was not as we will see shortly – but rather because Peter represents a state of consciousness that lies at the heart of institutionalized Christianity.

On the positive side, Jesus recognized Peter’s spiritual potential and that was one of the reasons he picked him to be one of his disciples. Peter had the discernment to recognize the Christ in Jesus and this is why he accepted Jesus offer to follow him. And as we know, Jesus once said to him Simon, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build this church (Mathew 16:18). But what kind of rock was Jesus talking about here? Of course, it is not the rock of the ego, the rigid, solidified stone that is the beam in one’s own eye. Rather, Jesus was talking about the rock of the Christ consciousness, which does not turn this way with the shifting sands of the duality consciousness. Yet of course Jesus knew that the same potential to connect with the inner Christ that was in Peter is in all of humanity. Therefore, Jesus was not elevating Peter above the rest and saying that he was the sole torch bearer for Jesus teachings for all time. Instead, Jesus was saying that his teachings rest upon the foundation of the Christ that is in all people, not just in Peter. So the Christ within is the rock that Jesus would build on and not Peter’s outer person.

Though the statement about Peter being the rock of the church is often quoted to establish the authority of Catholic Church as well as the justification for the exclusively male clergy, less often quoted is Jesus stern rebukes of Peter. Did you ever wonder why Jesus said the Peter get thee behind me Satan! (Mathew 16:23) and then later prophesied to him: Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice (Mathew 26:75)?

The reason is that while Peter could recognize the Christ in others or least in Jesus, he wanted that Christ to conform to the expectations of his ego. He thought he knew better than Jesus and sought to control him. So, for example, when Jesus told his disciples that he would go to Jerusalem and in the three days would be crucified, Peter objected essentially telling Jesus he should not do this. When Jesus was washing the feet of his disciples, Peter initially objected though ultimately relented. In both these examples Jesus was not conforming to Peter’s expectations of the Christ should do in this world. You can see that he Peter wanted Jesus to conform to his own expectations which were typically on the side of displaying power and not acts of humility or surrender.

When the Romans came to arrest Jesus, Peter cut off the ear of one guards, essentially violating Jesus teachings of with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you (Mathew 1:11) Again, we see that Peter could not accept the fact that Jesus would surrender himself in humility and was willing to use violence to stop this from happening. In a final act of betrayal, Peter actually denied that he knew Jesus three times when questions by authorities during Jesus crucifixion.

Now, it is probably true that Peter denied Jesus in part to protect his own life, but I believe he also did this because he felt betrayed by Jesus. Peter denied he knew Jesus because he truly did not know the Jesus that failed to conform to his expectations. He was angry at Jesus because he couldn’t control him. And the reason that Peter could accept Jesus decisions is that he internalized the Christ in himself. He rejected the Christ within in favor of the false image of an outer savior who would crush his adversaries rather than surrender to them.

So you can see that if the Catholic Church began with Peter, then you can understand that the denial of Christ lies at the very heart of institutionalized Christianity. And this denial of Christ has continued for two thousand years where even today there is hardly a single Christian church, Catholic or Protestant that teaches that Christ is to be found within you. For Christ not internalized is Christ denied. You cannot truly know God if you deny God within yourself as you will always accept a false image of an outer God as a substitute. Yet it could have been different. There was a higher potential for the followers of Jesus than what eventually became institutionalized Christianity. Christianity could have followed the example of someone who did internalize the Christ consciousness to a far higher degree than Peter. And that would have been the example of Jesus closest disciple – Mary Magdalene.


Mary Magdalene and Jesus’ View of Women
Mary Magdalene is usually depicted as the penitent prostitute or the woman out of who was cast seven demons. Whether these stories are true or not misses the point. The point being that Jesus knew that God was no respecter of persons (Jude 1:11) and thus understood that women had the same spiritual potential as men to become the Christ. He also knew that women had been suppressed for thousands of years and therefore a part of God was being suppressed.

Earlier we discussed how God has two essential aspects, the Father, Alpha or masculine aspect and the Mother, Omega or the feminine aspect. Both aspects are essential for divine balance and wholeness and you really can’t have one without the other. So what you had in Jesus day as well as contemporary society is a religion that is out of balance in that it elevates the masculine aspect of God – although a highly distorted view at that – while almost completely denying the feminine aspect of God. This has had the effect that the perversions of the masculine qualities, such as fanaticism, intolerance and the abuse of power, have dominated religious life while the balancing effects of the feminine, such as nurturance, compassion and wisdom, have been actively suppressed.

Part of Jesus’ mission, therefore, was to help restore this balance in the Jewish religion so that women could play their rightful role in helping to raise the consciousness of humanity. Doing so, moreover, would ultimately help all souls obtain the necessary balance between the masculine and feminine aspects of their own beings. Jesus was never bashful about bucking societal norms so that the Christ in himself and in all might be expressed. In fact, Jesus went out of his way to encourage women to fulfill their spiritual potential. It’s clear from certain passages in the canonical gospels and the so called Gnostic writings that women played a major role in Jesus life and teachings. Consider the following passage from Luke:

And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God; and the twelve were with him, and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom was cast seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuzra Herod’s steward, and Suzanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance (Luke 8:1-2)

Here we get the picture of Jesus, his twelve disciples and a number of women all traveling together from city to city throughout the holy land preaching the gospel that the kingdom of God was at hand and within them. Think about how radical of approach that was. It must have been a great shock to see women teaching and preaching along side of Jesus and other men in a society where women were treated as second class citizens.

Yet Jesus was not concerned about shocking people who are stuck in their egos. In fact, it probably served to his advantage that people were forced to deal with their rigid mental boxes about women when confronted with this scene. He was more concerned with raising up the divine feminine in both women and in men then he was for respecting the established social mores of the day. And as a part of Jesus plan to assist women in realizing their spiritual potential one woman in particular played a unique role in this drama. That of course being Mary Magdalene.

Even in the canonical gospels there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Mary Magdalene played a special role in Jesus life and mission as the following examples suggest:

• Mary witnessed the procession of Christ as he was carrying the cross and collapsed under its weight (Mark 15:40)
• Mary Magdalene was present at the foot of the cross with Jesus' mother Mary and the apostle John. Mary was mentioned first among women at the crucifixion in the gospels. (Matthew 27:56, Mark 15:40, John 19:25)
• Mary was present at Jesus burial at the tomb, and witnessed the stone being rolled to seal its entrance. (Matthew 27:61)
• Mary was first to appear at the tomb the next morning to witness the stone had rolled away. (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1, Luke 24:10, John 20:1)
• Mary Magdalene was the first to witness the risen Christ, in fact, the first to preach the resurrection, to the apostles themselves. (Mark 16:9, Luke 24:10, John 20:18) – citations courtesy of marymagdalene.net

I believe the fact that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection is especially telling regarding the importance of her role. Why didn’t he appear to Peter first or to one of the other disciples? To me, it says that Jesus appeared to the one he was closest to just as most of us would tell our closest friends – our spouses or otherwise – when something wonderful has happened.

There is no doubt that Jesus and Mary had a very special relationship. Many believed they were married and even had children. In fact this was the central premise for enormously popular novel The Da Vinci Code. So the idea resonates with people, especially today when many Christians are beginning to awaken to higher truths and are searching for something more than what they have been given through institutionalized Christianity. Personally, because of the intensity and condensed nature of Jesus mission, I doubt that they were married during his Galilean embodiment, though I would not rule out the possibility that they were married sometime after his resurrection as some scholars have suggested.

I do believe, however, that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were soul mates or twin flames as some have called it. The concept here is that when God created our souls, we were always created in pairs – one primarily holding the masculine polarity of God and the other the feminine polarity. Note that both have masculine and feminine aspects, but each has slightly more of the quality that there are destined to manifest. The idea is that each of has a twin flame out there somewhere and when working in harmony whether in or out of embodiment then accomplish more together than apart.

So this is the type of relationship that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had. And it was the love of the twin flame relationship that helped sustain and uplift each other through the trying times of Jesus’ final incarnation. Though they have great love for each other born from this eternal tie, I think they both used that love in a working relationship with the goal of bringing the teachings of the inner kingdom to the people.

The following passage taken from the fragments remaining to what is referred to as the Gospel of Mary suggests just such a post resurrection role for Mary and she describes a vision she received from Jesus:

When Mary had said this, she fell silent, since it was to this point that the Savior had spoken with her. But Andrew answered and said to the brethren, Say what you wish to say about what she has said. I at least do not believe that the Savior said this. For certainly these teachings are strange ideas. Peter answered and spoke concerning these same things. He questioned them about the Savior: Did He really speak privately with a woman and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer her to us? Then Mary wept and said to Peter, My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I have thought this up myself in my heart, or that I am lying about the Savior? Levi answered and said to Peter, Peter you have always been hot tempered. Now I see you contending against the woman like the adversaries. But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely the Savior knows her very well. That is why He loved her more than us. Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect Man, and separate as He commanded us and preach the gospel, not laying down any other rule or other law beyond what the Savior said. And when they heard this they began to go forth to proclaim and to preach.

Take note that the very same apostle who Catholic Church uses to justify their discrimination against women turns about to be the most vocal critic of Mary’s proposed leadership role. Again we see here the denial of Christ but this time it is the denial of the Christ within Mary Magdalene as there was definite opposition to her leadership almost exclusively based upon the fact that she was a woman. I don’t want to be too hard on Peter here as he and the other disciples were definitely products of their cultures which placed women in a subservient role. Nevertheless the opposition to women even at that time was not inevitable as Levi’s comments suggests. Levi recognized that Jesus had picked Mary for a very good reason. He understood that Jesus was no respecter of outer personalities, even when it came to his twin flame. Therefore it must have been Mary’s spiritual attainment – her own connection with her higher self – that earned her the right to lead the apostles.

In the end, however, history tells us that the leadership role of Mary Magdalene in particular and women in general did not last as it was actively resisted and suppressed by the male dominated culture. And it was this same male dominated and ego based culture that ultimately destroyed the early Christian movements with its more Gnostic, Being based approach advocated by Jesus.
In its place, through the efforts of Emperor Constantine and others, Christianity became institutionalized with much of it derived from the traditions and customs of the Roman Empire. The idea, for example, that the Roman emperor was the only divine being on earth was replaced by the idea that Jesus is the only Son of God elevated above the rest of us.

The Role of Mary, the Mother of Jesus
Jesus’ mother Mary – referred to here as Mother Mary – is somewhat of an exception in how women have been regarded in the Christian church. Clearly a special role and honor is afforded her for having given birth to and raising Jesus. She has also been venerated for centuries by Catholics, and in more recent history she has been said to appear to certain of the faithful providing special messages and dispensations. The upside of this is that at least there has been some veneration of and raising up of the Mother energy through dedication to her heart.

Despite this special status, there are certain ideas about her that are problematic from a spiritual perspective. First, as everyone knows, it is said that Mary conceived Jesus in the womb by the agency of the Holy Spirit without having any marital relations with her husband Joseph. This is the so called virgin birth story. One of the unfortunate side effects of this story is that it sends the message that the Christ cannot be conceived by the normal reproductive process. In essence, this means that normal human sexuality is not pure enough to produce the likes of Jesus, and more importantly we are not good enough, we are not worthy to bring forth the Christ. It is another way to separate us from Jesus - another way of putting Jesus on a pedestal and making an idol out of him. The story also separates us from Mother Mary, as she too is put on a pedestal. It essentially says to other women that unless they are specially singled out by God they cannot be like her and give birth to the Christ.

In short, the story is just another way of keeping the Christ out of this world – which truth be told, has been the desire of the forces of antichrist since the time of the fall and beyond. I would like to go on record here stating that the virgin birth is a myth and that Jesus was conceived in the normal way like any one of us. Therefore you don’t have to born in a special way to reach your spiritual potential. And in the end, it’s not so much how our body was born but that the Christ is born in each of us through the decisions we make on a daily basis.

Although the story does elevate Mary above most of us, it doesn’t elevate her as high as Jesus. You can see that in accounts of Jesus and Mary assent into heaven. Both presumably made it to heaven. Yet when we look at the scriptures we see that while Jesus was said to have ascended Luke (1:11) into heaven, Mary was merely assumed (Luke 1:11) into heaven. To me, the term “ascended” sounds active and superior, while the term “assumed” sounds passive and inferior, somehow less deserving. At any rate “assumed” is not the same as “ascended” and since Jesus is the highest being in the Christian hierarchy, one can only assume that “ascended” is better. The concept sends a dual message that Jesus is higher than even the best of us and that a woman could not be treated by God the same way as a man.

As stated above, the Catholic Church has maintained some connection to the Divine Feminine by keeping a tie to Mother Mary, since the Reformation, the Protestant church has severed this tie altogether as they rejected the Catholic tradition of the veneration of the saints. It’s understandable that the Protestants sought to remove themselves from all ecclesiastical roadblocks to their relationship with Jesus – as they may have seen the saints as just another extension of the oppressive Catholic hierarchy. However, their decision to reject Mother Mary is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. In the process of rejecting unwanted spiritual authority, they also discarded whatever tenuous tie to the Feminine aspect of God that remained in the Catholic Church. Even today, my own experience growing up Lutheran is that many Protestants are almost suspicious of Mary as one who somehow competes with the special status of Jesus. Many see the Catholic Church as cult like due in no small measure to their veneration of Mary.

This is most unfortunate as she is a being who could render them tremendous assistance on the path of personal Christhood. You see, Mother Mary ascended into heaven just like Jesus did because she united with God in the own being as Jesus did. Today, Mother Mary is an ascended being like Jesus and like him remains with the earth to assist all in reaching their spiritual potential. She is not Catholic, she is not Protestant, and she is not even Christian. Like Jesus and all ascended beings, she cannot be fit into the narrow box defined by any of the world’s religions as she is constantly transcending herself while flowing with the River of Life. She has on occasion delivered messages through certain Catholic visionaries because they were the only traditional Christians open to her message. However, she cannot deliver an unedited message regarding the inner kingdom to these emissaries because it is outside their understanding of God so they would therefore reject it.

Understand that Mother Mary can help all who are seeking God to find that God within themselves. She is very involved with helping raise the light of the Divine Mother in each of us and the planet as a whole. In fact, she represents the Divine Mother to the people of earth. If you meditate on her immaculate heart she will show you how raise the light up in yourself and manifest the abundant life which as the scriptures say is the Father’s good pleasure to give us. She should not, however, be idolized because when you idolize someone you can never internalize and become what they have become. Therefore, I highly suggest you avail yourself of her assistance and see how she can help you surrender every beam in your eye that is preventing you from being here below all that you are above.

The Feminine and the Fall
Returning to our discussion of Eve, was it really Eve or women that caused the fall? Well, we have discussed earlier in the book that the fall was not the fall of only one or two people, but it was really was an event or perhaps we should say process that happened to untold number of souls throughout history. So it cannot be said that one person caused the fall, be it a woman or a man. What did happen however, and the reason the story persists that Eve caused the fall, is that feminine aspect of our beings that fell into the duality consciousness – which is what we really mean by the term “the fall of man.”

So how did the feminine cause the fall? This can be seen from different perspectives. From one perspective, our relationship with God can be viewed a polarity between ourselves and Spirit. God or the I AM Presence can be seen as the masculine or directing aspect of our beings while our Conscious Self or souls can be seen as the receiving or feminine aspect of our beings. From this perspective, it is undoubtedly the feminine side of us that fell. The masculine aspect, the I AM Presence could never fall into duality as it beyond the dimensions of form and time and space where duality can exist.

From another perspective, even in the lower aspect of our beings below there is both a masculine and feminine side to each of us. Ideally these aspects of our being need to be in balance to maintain proper spiritual growth and awareness. The masculine aspect is more active side of beings multiplying our talents and energy in the world of form while the feminine side is more passive receiving side open to the suggestions of higher self. What happened during the fall is that the feminine aspects of our natures became open to suggestions outside of our spiritual teachers and our higher identity. The feminine part of our beings became open to the suggestions of the Serpent – which, as explained before, is the conglomerate consciousness of those beings who embodied the mind of antichrist. The Serpent projected thoughts and feelings of doubt into our minds which our feminine side, normally open to receiving the vibrations of the mind of Christ – internalized. This caused our consciousness to gradually fall into the consciousness of duality – a condition from which few on this planet have escaped since that time.

So we see here that is the feminine aspect of our beings in both women and men that fell and not women in particular. Therefore there is no need to blame Eve or all women for the condition that we found ourselves in after the fall as we are all responsible for allowing this to happen. I don’t say this to condemn or blame anyone but is simply a fact that each of us lowered our consciousness to the point where we lost direct contact with our higher selves. Therefore it is up to each us individually and to some extent collectively to once again rise above the ego and duality consciousness and reconnect with the higher aspect of ourselves.


Restoring the Divine Feminine
So how do get back to the garden, as it were? Of course, we have already discussed a number of ways which we make our way back to the Infinite by walking the inner path of oneness. Yet, when we realize that we fell by lowering the feminine in ourselves, it’s logical that the way back to oneness is in part the path of restoring the feminine – both individually and in society as a whole. We need to both resurrect that feminine and bring it into balance with the masculine aspects of our beings. Only when doing so can we really be whole.

Therefore, we need to take the beam out of our eye of those conditions that suppress the feminine qualities, such as purity, abundance, nurturance, wisdom, compassion, understanding and intuition. These conditions can be both cultural and psychological but ultimately they can be traced back to the ego. Therefore, we need to actively seek to heal the parts of ourselves, such as pride and anger that prevent the divine feminine from manifesting in ourselves and in society.

From a societal level, one thing that would help provide perspective is the fact that all have reincarnated in both feminine and masculine embodiments. So to say that the same soul is somehow superior to women when embodied as a man but inferior to men when embodied as women just doesn’t make any sense. We need to recognize that both genders are equal in value but have different roles to play. We also need to recognize the all us have both masculine and feminine characteristics so it is not meaningful to place a higher value on one gender than the other.

For humanity to reach its God given potential, the divine feminine must be raised up in all aspects of life but especially in religion. As discussed, Christianity has historically suppressed the divine feminine, both theologically and organizationally as it has not allowed women to be placed in leadership roles. Even today, when the women’s movement has permeated almost every aspect of Western society, Christian churches have been relatively slow to allow women equal opportunities to lead. It’s unfortunate fact that even the churches that make it a point to reach out to young people and try to be culturally relevant and trendy often are dominated by male clergy.

This needs to change. But it probably won’t change until Christians understand that the very nature of God is both masculine and feminine. Remember, we were all created in the image and likeness of God and that both male and female created he them (Gen. 1:26-27). Thus, God must be both masculine and feminine if we are created in God’s image and likeness. Sometimes the problem is in the language is most of our terms describing God are male oriented. It becomes somewhat difficult to overcome this male bias with these limitations but not impossible. It is possible, however, as our God language evolves, so too will our image and understanding of God.

But until that day there’s much room for improvement and growth in how women are treated in Christianity. In fact, I submit that women should be allowed into any and all leadership roles available in our churches today. Not just in Christian churches, however, but I would advocate for this change in all religions, especially the Muslim religion where we see the most severe repression of women of any organized religion.

So I would hurl this challenge to all of Christendom: Raise up the Divine Feminine in within all and raise it up in all the organizational hierarchies and structures. Tear down the wall of separation that lies between women and their true spiritual destiny and potential! After all, if Jesus treated women as equals, can modern day Christians do any less? Jesus had great reverence for the Divine Feminine, which he also referred to as the Mother of the world. Meditate on these words attributed to Jesus (respectfully referred to as St. Issa) as was reportedly told to travelers in India some years after his crucifixion:

At this time, an old woman approached the crowd, but was pushed back. Then Issa said, "Reverence Woman, mother of the universe,' in her lies the truth of creation. She is the foundation of all that is good and beautiful. She is the source of life and death. Upon her depends the existence of man, because she is the sustenance of his labors. She gives birth to you in travail, she watches over your growth. Bless her. Honor her. Defend her. Love your wives and honor them, because tomorrow they shall be mothers, and later-progenitors of a whole race. Their love ennobles man, soothes the embittered heart and tames the beast. Wife and mother-they are the adornments of the universe."

It this is accomplished, if we revere and upraise the Divine Mother in each us and in Christianity as well, I believe we could experience a veritable renaissance in spirituality in all Christian churches. When we unleash the power the Divine Mother balanced by the Divine Father, there is literally no end to the growth and rejuvenation that can take place. All it takes is a few enlightened souls to get this movement started. When you elevate the Divine Feminine in yourself, perhaps you will be one of them.

Love is Calling Out Your Name

Used to be

Part of me went to sleep

Dreaming of better days

Charging at windmills

So unfulfilled

Gazing into the haze

The bottom rocks cut me

I cried out “who touched me”

Into the rays

Like Lazarus trembling

The dove is descending

And then it says

Love is calling out your name

When you hear it you can rise

In the Spirit everything can change

Come up higher then the mire

Of the muck and mar

Feel the fire’s desire to be who you are

Let the sun in and come in

From the rain

As love is calling out your name

Listen to me

You can be, I can be

One with infinity

It’s no desecration

To claim it

Our native divinity

Turn a deaf ear to the fears

That tell you

What cannot be

It’s all an illusion

So pierce the sword through them

And then you’ll see


(chorus)

No disguising the sun is rising

The new day is on its way

You can find it, be reminded

The path is clearing

The voice your hearing


(chorus)

KOG: Be There of Be Square

Jesus was not a religious man. Nor did he come to start a new religion. He did not come to uphold the status quo of priests and prelates who lorded over the people, interjecting themselves between the people and their relationship to God. Those who believe that Jesus was a pious Jew who followed all their rules are simply in denial of what Jesus said and did in this regard.

Jesus was, in fact, in constant conflict with the religious authorities of his day. He healed on the Sabbath. He overturned the tables in the temple. He rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees. These actions flowed from Jesus’ inner connection with God - all for a purpose.

He came to shake things up. In doing so, Jesus desired to awaken and liberate the people from their dependence on the fixed ideas of the outer authorities, as well as an attempt to reform the Jewish religion. For much like the Christian religion that followed it, Judaism had become ossified by demanding a rigid adherence to outer rules, customs, and mores. In Jesus day, following these rules to the letter was presented as the only means to salvation while the priests were setup as the judge and jury over it.

Yet Jesus knew that God – a God of unconditional love – accepted no outer rules or conditions to enter his Kingdom. In other words, Jesus understood that no amount of prayers, rituals, fasting, sacrifices, pilgrimages or position of authority could guarantee entrée into God’s kingdom. Nor can not doing these things necessarily keep you from it.

So where then is this kingdom, how does one find it? Well, in perhaps the most profound of all Jesus’ statements recorded in the gospels, listen to what he says to the Pharisees as they question him on this subject:

"And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, 'the kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you!"(Luke 17:20-21)

Clearly, Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God does not come from observing outer rules and rituals alone; but rather it comes from your own inner connection to God. For the kingdom of God is not outside of you. It is not in some remote place in the sky. Rather, its right where you are – right within you!

This is not to setup a false dichotomy between following outer religious customs and seeking an inner connection with God. Obviously, outer rituals can be highly beneficial to spiritual progress. But such practices were never meant as a replacement for one’s own direct inner experience of God. Instead, outer practices are meant to be a stepping stone or tool to help us achieve the inner connection.

By declaring in no uncertain terms that the kingdom of God is within us, Jesus is telling us that we can and are meant to have a direct experience of God - that we have the capacity for such spiritual experiences right within our hearts and minds. Further, this inner experience requires no outer authority to achieve, be it from a minister, scripture or ceremony.

This is because the kingdom of God that’s within you is not a physical place. It is rather, a state of mind, a state of consciousness. Consciousness is something that is a natural part of us. It doesn’t require outer authorities or churches, nor can it be controlled by these authorities or institutions if we don’t let them. So the kingdom of God is really something that can be reached by anyone. Anyone, that is, who is willing to give up a state of mind that keeps them out of the kingdom; anyone, who is willing to have a direct experience of God within themselves.

The Pharisees, however, were not looking for God within themselves. For them – and indeed for most religions throughout recorded history – their man made descriptions of an outer God served as a substitute for the reality of the inner experience of God. It’s important to see here that a great gap can exist between a description of something and the actual experience of something. For example, if someone had never tasted an apple and only had the taste described to them, this experience would not be the same as actually tasting the apple itself. In other words, you really don’t know what and apple tastes like unless you take a bite out of it.

This is especially true of spiritual matters. You have to experience God to know God. Many spiritual concepts, however, are primarily derived from mental images of God and not from a direct experience of God. These mental images in turn are usually established by religious leaders who may or may not have had any direct connection with God.

Furthermore, principles derived from these mental images that are not tied to the reality of God and can easily be manipulated by spiritual leaders to fit their own agenda. This often causes spiritual blindness, both in the leaders themselves and their followers. In the case of the Pharisees, since their concepts of God were based entirely on descriptions of God and not actual experience, they kept both themselves and their followers squarely inside a mental box of what was right and wrong as defined by their own relative outer standards.

The Key of Knowledge
The Pharisees were unwilling to apply what Jesus called the "key of knowledge." The key of knowledge – the thing that Jesus said the Pharisees were hindering the people from finding - simply is the ability to discover spiritual truth within ourselves independent of some outer authority. In the Old Testament, it is said that I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).

This helps us understand that God has written truth within each of us – we just need the ability and the confidence to find it. The key of knowledge is the inner confirmation of what we already know to be true. It is the remembrance of what we once knew at deeper levels of our being. Note that this concept in no way excludes information coming from sources outside of ourselves; it only requires that the information resonates with the Spirit of Truth within us.

The importance of using the key of knowledge cannot be underestimated. Think of all the suffering that has been wrought in this world because people have been led to believe that truth can only be found only within a particular religion, church, clergy, doctrine, custom, creed or political philosophy. This is because these various institutions, dogmas and philosophies where not fashioned out the Spirit of Truth within but rather out of spiritual blindness – out of the “fleshly” mindset. When you use the key of knowledge to find truth, however, you can never be enslaved or controlled by any outer authority as the only authority you can accept is the authority of God within you.

Can you see now how Jesus message of the inner kingdom was such a threat to the Pharisees authority? They hated him because they could not control him. They couldn’t control Jesus because he used the key of knowledge and found the kingdom of God within him. And because of this Jesus turned their whole world upside down simply by being who he already was - true to his real identity.

He refused to be imprisoned inside their rigid mental boxes. He could not be controlled by their fixed ideas – their graven images - of whom and what God had to be. Jesus did not need their authority or their validation because both were derived from his oneness with God within. He also knew that his followers could do the same and he encouraged them to do so.

Can you imagine what would have happened if hundreds, thousands or millions of people starting doing the same as Jesus did? Can you see how the earth would be dramatically different today if that had taken place then or now? If you really contemplate Jesus’ statement "the works that I do shall ye do also; and greater works than these shall ye do; because I go unto my Father" (John14:12) can you see that this is precisely what Jesus wants for his followers?

Far from setting himself up as an idol to be worshiped, from the very beginning Jesus has always wanted us to follow in his footsteps, awaken to our true identity, enter the inner kingdom and walk the earth as sons and daughters of God who can say with him, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). He has wanted us to know the same oneness with the Father that he had. And thus he prayed: "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are" (John 17:11).

As it was then so today, I believe Jesus wants us to Be in the kingdom in the here and now and not wait for the hereafter. You will only wait for the kingdom of God when you feel it is outside of yourself, beyond your ability to enter on your own. Yet truly the kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:14) because it’s always inside of us – waiting for us to enter.

So what’s preventing us from Be-ing there? Well, if the kingdom of God is inside our own hearts and minds, is it not logical to assume that something inside our hearts and minds keeps us from finding and entering it? But if that’s true, what is that something? What’s keeping us squarely inside the mental prisons, immobilized on a cross of our own making, right where the Pharisees, lawyersand their latter day descendants want us?

To answer that, we need to go back to the beginning. Back to the Garden and beyond. If you have the courage, I invite you to come along.