"…I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" (Revelation 7: 9 & 10; New King James Bible Version (NKJV). "Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?" And I said to him, "Sir, you know." So he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7: 13-17; NKJV). "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death." (Revelation 12: 10 & 11; NKJV).
In our world today, there are many interpretations of the Bible, where the messages and historical accounts are phrased, and rephrased, so that we cannot know which Bible version most accurately follows the original, ancient texts. My own preference is the New King James Bible, which replaces mostly minor words of the old English version (such as 'thee' and 'thou') with the updated English words 'you' and 'me'; while the other words in sentences remain pretty much the same as the original King James text. I mention this biblical evolution because, as books within the Bible go, the Book of Revelation is the toughest nut to crack, no matter what version of the Bible is being studied; and it is in the book of Revelation where mention is made of 'the blood of the lamb'. The book of Revelation tells of St. John's great vision that is still studied for meaning around the world. The entire book of Revelation is filled with symbolism, which the reader must attempt to discern in order to find the meaning of the text. A 'symbol' is something that represents something other than what is actually being depicted or described. In modern-day terms, a symbol is a code. It has a message that has been 'cloaked', so to speak. Now, throughout the New Testament of the Christian Bible, the symbolism of Christ Jesus as 'the Lamb' is found in other New Testament texts. It is easy enough to interpret; for in ancient times, animals, particularly of the unblemished variety, were sacrificed to whatever ancient god was being worshiped. Following the teachings of Abraham, Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice to the God of Spirit, in payment for the sins and wrong-doings of humanity. Thus, it is easy to perceive that he was the symbolic 'lamb' to the slaughter. Yet, during the days when Jesus walked the earth, times were changing in the ancient world. Having gods many was a belief that was dying out. The sense of a spiritual dimension to life was growing in the 'cradle of civilization' as the Middle East was called, and by the time of the New Testament writings, both Judaism and Islamic beliefs were tending to recognize a god of Spirit, invisibly present, but quite real, just the same. Since Abraham was the shared ancestor of Islamic culture and the Jewish culture, it was logical that the descendants of Abraham would have great similarities in their religious teachings. But despite that turn away from earthly gods toward a god of Spirit, the belief in live sacrifices to deities, even the God of Spirit, was still afoot in the minds of the people during the days of Christ Jesus' ministry. So, for humanity to press forward, the belief in sacrifices to the one God had to be ended. It was time for a savior to appear, who would 'save' humanity from all the erroneous beliefs of ancient gods, and the destructive beliefs that material thinking produces. To this end, Jesus offered, or was divinely chosen, to BE the last blood-sacrifice in a way that was to bring about an end to all human, and animal sacrifices to God, who did not require the death of any one or any thing in Its beloved creation! After his resurrection, Jesus tried to tell everyone that the great debt of death to God, which sinning humanity believed must be paid, had been paid for all time. And even though God never required such a thing in Its loving creation, he, Christ Jesus, had paid it because just about everyone on earth believed, and were taught, that death was God's punishment for sin, or any and all types of wrong, unloving behavior. Sinning humanity mentally, and collectively, needed to be redeemed, in its own, collective, belief systems. So, during the time of Jesus, just about everyone in the human, material existence believed that material death was a necessary payment to an angry God for humanity's wrong-doing. It's remarkable to note that this same belief still permeates many spots on the globe today. Thankfully, much of humanity has awakened out of such gloom concerning God's nature, and now knows that God was, and always will be, our loving Creator and divine, loving Parent to all of us, not just to Jesus. Many religions are now embracing God as the Source of all good…not as an enemy, not as a punisher, but as our eternal, loving, Parent. Logic recognizes that we, as loving parents ourselves, do not continuously punish our young, human off-springs who don't yet have the maturity to do right. So, would God, infinite, loving Spirit, punish Its own spiritually, immature children who are still sleeping in their ignorance of spiritual reality? No. In the biblical passage of Habakkuk 1:13, (NKJV) the Bible says of God, "You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness." This passage points out the fact that the divine Mind does not take notice of what things we do while under the delusion of materiality. God sees us as we really are…as Its spiritual children, who are still asleep in the collective dream of materiality; but who, when fully awake to spiritual reality and its eternal Harmony, are innocent of wrong-doing. The divine Intelligence of the universe knows that we are in an altered state of mind when we do wrong. When we awaken spiritually, we'll know our true, sinless selves and realize that things were not what they had seemed. But because we don't yet perceive our spiritual selves or our pre-existence in Spirit, we do all sorts of ignorant and destructive things under the collective delusion of finite materiality. We have to learn that material existence is a state of self-deception before we begin to rise above it, or awaken from it. Only then do we realize that we are first, last, and always the spiritual children of God, even when we were living in the collective, dream-like mental state of finite materiality, where God seems to be absent. In this human experience, where good and evil appear to dwell side by side, we often live in fear of God. Yet, how can we possibly love anyone, or anything that we fear? Also, sometimes the Bible speaks of 'fearing' God, but that use of the term is meant to mean we should stand in awe of the divine Power that can take care of us eternally, over any enemy to our well-being. We should never fear that God's Power will be used to harm us in any way; rather the power of the Almighty over all creation is for our benefit…not our punishment. Here is another point to ponder: In the Book of John, 3:16 (NKJV) we read: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Notice that this passage does not say that Jesus was the only son of God; for, in spiritual reality, we are all the sons and daughters of Spirit, (God) rather than the flesh. Rather, it says that Jesus was the only begotten Son of God; the only one to have had no fleshly father connected to the birth process. Among humanity, Jesus was alone in that; he was the only off-spring of God who needed no physical male in order to take material form in the womb. His entry into humanity's collective dream of physical-seeming reality was a demonstration, all in itself. It proved that divine Spirit is the only real Creator of everyone. The physical birth process is not our real origin. We are all God's off-spring, as Jesus himself pointed out when saying at his ascension, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (See John 20; 17, King James Version). He also said, "And call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven." (Matthew 23:4; KJV). (Remember these words whenever you believe you have inherited something bad from your fleshly father or mother.) Throughout the Bible, Christ Jesus clearly established himself to be our enlightened spiritual brother, who came into this illusory dream of life in matter, in order to show us ourselves…our spiritual selves, whose identity is not material, but spiritual. The Truth of spiritual being, rather than physical being, had everything to do with his healing ministry. He didn't need to heal physical bodies; instead, he recognized God's own spiritual off-spring, right where a finite, material identity seemed to be, but was not; and he knew that the off-spring of divine Spirit can't be sick, injured, or dead. He even taught this healing truth to his disciples, who continued spiritual healing, even after Jesus ascended. That's why he is our Savior…he saves us with the divine Truth of our own being. That's how he defeated death; and with his own demonstration over physical death, he was showing us that our own demonstration over physical death was a future reality. It also proves that Spirit, the substance of our own being, never dies. And although we think of ourselves as finite, fleshly creatures who are born to die, we are really, invisibly, the spiritual off-spring of God, who is infinite Spirit. Like produces like. The material body form can change in a heartbeat. Our spiritual life and substance cannot be changed, ever. Whenever we die in the flesh, we can produce another body form on the other side, if needed. Jesus talked with Elijah and Moses on the Mount of transfiguration, and these two ancient ones had died in the flesh hundreds or thousands of years earlier. Yet, there they were, talking with Jesus in front of other people. Here is a biblical account of that event: "Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!" And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, "Arise, and do not be afraid." When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. "Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead." (Matthew 17: 1-9; NKJV). From the above biblical account, we can see the importance of the resurrection in Jesus' full mission to humanity. It was the final proof of all that he said about eternal life as a reality. And the conversation with those who had left the material scene so many years before showed life to be a spiritual phenomenon…not a physical afterlife; for Moses and Elijah did not appear in the flesh exactly, and even Jesus appeared differently, for "His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light." So, to summarize: the importance of the phrase, 'blood of the Lamb' is to remind us that once, our spiritually enlightened brother, came into our collective dream of materiality to show us the way out. He played the sacrificial lamb for us, to release us from our own erroneous beliefs that we owe a debt that we cannot pay, to a vengeful God. Christ Jesus came into the human experience to reacquaint us with God and to help us realize all the love and divine circumstances that we actually have, because they come from our divine Creator and everlasting Source of our being. But there was still more to the mission of Christ Jesus than being a human, sacrificial lamb for us and to shed humanity from the stain of guilt before God. He came to reveal the universal Christ identity of all of us. Jesus' healing ministry and resurrection of several ordinary people who were raised from the dead was also an important part of his mission. For, in healing the sick and deformed human bodies and minds of the people who followed him, Jesus was showing us that God's off-spring are always whole, always healthy, right where a finite, material identity seems to be, but is not. This is the spiritual Truth of the universal Christ identity of each of us. The master's healing ministry proved that disease, deformity and aging bodies belong to none of God's spiritual children. Our Christly identities are everlastingly whole and free, even while we are in the erroneous belief that we are finite, physical creatures, born to die. The 'Christ' is the title which represented his spiritual identity; Jesus was the name of the fleshly man he had played prior to his resurrection. That's why St. Paul wrote (after Christ Jesus' resurrection): "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." (2 Corinthians 5:16; KJV) We have never, actually, left the kingdom of God. It is invisibly present and active, forever; and we can prove this fact whenever we turn to God with faith of its presence. We've never been abandoned by our divine, loving Parent, who is still awaiting our awakening from sleep and from the dream of materiality. We've never, really left our harmonious home (Heaven) in the spiritual realm of God's divine love for us; for even as we sleep in the finite dreamland of materiality, rather than Spirit, God still perceives us quite clearly. The Christ of our own being is the title of our spiritual identity, just as it represented the title of Jesus' spiritual identity. Jesus was an example of the two identities of mankind…the temporary, fleshly identity vs. the true, spiritual ever-lasting identity. Jesus was his temporary, fleshly identity; the Christ signifies the ever-lasting identity of himself and each of us who follow down the path of spiritual awakening. The mission of Christ Jesus to humanity will go on until, as St Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians (Corinthians 15:51-53 KJV): One day, the last soul will fully awaken to his or her Christly Selfhood, and the false, material sense of existence will end for all time, like a dream ending with the night. Then, as we open our eyes from our material sleep, the memories of our harmonious, heavenly home will come flooding back; and no one need save us from harm, anymore.
|
