1 result for (book:tps4 AND heading:"delet session januari 23 1978" AND stemmed:christ)
[... 12 paragraphs ...]
(10:06.) That inner knowledge is behind all of his myths. It is said that there must be something, surely, to the story of Christ, since civilization was so altered. And for one-thousand, nine-hundred and seventy-eight years Christianity has flourished in one way or another. For a time it fueled both the arts and political life. It peopled the world of man with saints, sinners, priests, and it peopled space with a God, a legion of angels, and a devil and his cohorts—so surely Christianity must be based upon fact.
When people say this of course they mean that fact is true and myth is false. If I say there was very little factual basis for Christianity’s beginning, then people will interpret this to mean that Christ’s reality had no basis in truth. That is not what I am saying. There were other religions in other times that held a sway over civilizations for far longer periods. There were changes, but in general the religions of the Egyptians and the ancient Greeks are cases in point. The longevity of those religions and their effects upon those ancient civilizations are certainly not taken by “modern men” as proof that those religions had any basis in fact. Instead, they are considered as myths, pagan stories. Those peoples considered their Gods to be quite real, to have a basis in historical fact. Those religions had as great an effect upon their cultures as Christianity has had upon your own.
[... 4 paragraphs ...]
Both before and after “the time of Christ,” as historically given, there were men who claimed to be the messiah. The messiah was a myth waiting for factual clothes. Many men tried on the fit. In a manner of speaking, now, it would make little difference which man was finally given the kingly robes—for the greater reality of the dream was so encompassing that it would come to be, whether one or 10 or 20 men’s lives were historically joined together to form the Christ.
(10:37.) Christ tried to return man to nature. In a manner of speaking, again, there was no one Christ, historically speaking, but the personage of Christ, or the entity, was the reality from which the entire dramatic story emerged.
[... 3 paragraphs ...]
Christ of course was a common name. Crucifixions were normal punishments. Conflicts between the priests and righteous members of the congregation were frequent. Many men dreamed of being the messiah, yet the dream went even beyond the confines of Jewish identity, and was far more international than any would-be messiah realized. Some of the stories have absolutely no basis in fact, as you think of fact. Others are distorted versions of factual events.
One of Christ’s purposes, meaning the entity, was to teach man to see beyond the so-called facts of existence; not to deny death’s physical event, but to show the greater dimensions of that event, and man’s emergence into a new reality.
(Long pause at 10:47.) The greater creative drama involved occurred for centuries. Christ tried to tell men that he was everywhere, but they could not understand. He did not want a church, but an inner brotherhood. He was not born of a virgin, nor was his physical history any more factual than that once given for Zeus, or Apollo, or the Egyptian gods. His reality however did change the consciousness of man.
[... 12 paragraphs ...]