Opinion & Analysis

Inside the foundation of the church

 

Indeed, with a little help from the ancient but underestimated protolanguage of Setswana (the closest surviving language to Sumerian), we can determine that the primordial root of keue emanates from the Sumerian term kur (“bulge, swell, curve” – later “mountain”). Kur is the evident root of koro in Setswana (as in le-koro, kor-alla, etc.) as well as “curve”, “corrugated”, etc. (English.) We can thus easily decipher how kyriake (kuru-yaa-ke: his “mountain”; thus his “power-base”) came to be “church”. Kyriakon is also perfectly understandable as kuru-ya-ka (ga)-One (“His Power-base”).

Given this, two major practices emerged out of Christianity: Gnosticism and Ecclesiasticism. Ecclesiasticism centred on regular church attendance led either by elders (Presbyterianism) or by a formal priesthood hierarchy (Episcopalism) – the latter being regarded as literal successors to the Twelve Apostles. Practically, in matters of salvation, ecclesiasticism places most – or all – authority in Church leadership. In contrast, Gnosticism (literally: “to know”; kano[ko] in Tswana) centred on one’s direct knowledge of God, the Father, through a specific and now little-known form of meditation which requires a Living Saviour – a “Teacher of Righteousness” (Hebrew: Moreh-ha-zedek; Tswana: moreri-wa-tsa-toka) – to practically guide the devotee through the Seven Heavens that lead to the Father.

Gnostics, it is now clear, were also called Nahashin (Hebrew: Wise Ones) – a term that later corrupted to “Essene” and “Nazarene”. They were based in Qumran, a valley about twenty miles to the east of Jerusalem. Through the Dead Sea Scrolls, their arcane and cryptic writings, we learn that one such “Teacher” was involved in heavy conflict against a mysterious figure termed the “Wicked Priest”, which has led to several proposals for [his] identity (Wikipedia). The Teacher, the Scrolls say, was eventually killed by the religious leadership in Jerusalem, and his followers hailed him as messianic figure who had been exalted to the presence of God’s throne.

Holistically speaking, four great figures fit this scenario: John the Baptist (the Bab, or gateway), followed by Jesus (the Messiah), then Stephan (the Scribe) and finally James the Just, Jesus’ successor. As the Wikipedia explains: Robert Eisenman, an American scholar and archaeologist, has proposed James the Just, as the Teacher [who stood] against the “Wicked Priest” Ananus ben Ananus, [as well as] a certain “Spouter of Lies” who Eisenman identifies as Paul of Tarsus. Indeed, the bitter wrangling between Paul and James is well-documented as Paul sought to discredit and destroy this “reputed pillar” (ref. Galatians 2:9) of a “church” – evidently a Gnostic one. As I have strenuously explained in prior articles, Paul supervised the stoning of Stephan (S’tab-Aan: “Stub” or “counterpart” of Aan/John [the Baptist]) who, according to an Enkiite-Egyptian tradition, was one of the Aans (Johns) – the Two Witnesses of a Saviour; one to baptise (initiate) him; the other, a Scribe, to record his true legacy.

According to the surviving fragments of The Antiquities of the Jews, Ananus ben Ananus (“Aan the son of Aan”) is the high priest who allegedly ordered the execution by stoning of James the Just (James). Evidently, his name was a studied, Enlilite parody of the Enkiite “Aan”. Thus, although “other documents” (e.g. the Damascus Document) appear to associate this Teacher with a period earlier than the time of James the Just, this is evidently because events followed a recurring but misunderstood pattern called a pesher. For example, the stoning of James by a new “Aan, son of Aan” was a cynical pesher (re-enactment) of Paul’s prior stoning of Stephan. In fact, it was this very event that paved the way for Enkiite Gnostic truths – Jesus’ “occult” teachings – to be silenced, usurped and later distorted, leaving the Messiah (as planned in Dan 9:26) with “nothing”.

For these well-planned reasons, Rome ran with Paul’s teachings about a physical rather than a spiritual resurrection; myths aided by the news that Jesus’ body quickly went missing in his tomb. This outlook, of course, allowed people to remain in hopeful anticipation of a physical “second coming” of Jesus as an external rather than an internal, spiritual event – in direct contrast with his words in Luke 17:20-21.

Gnostic texts such as the Gospel of Thomas ridiculed this misunderstanding (later distorted as Thomas’ “doubt”), explaining that “resurrection’ is a symbolic term referring to “salvation” i.e. the moment one’s Astral body successfully threads the “eye of the needle” (Single Eye or Third Eye: Matt. 6:22, KJV) and steps into the First Heaven (Astral World) leaving the physical body behind as if dead – only to “resurrect” it upon return. The Eye of a Soul thus “born again” is no longer “blind” i.e. alive to only one dimension of existence. Guided inside by the Master, it has “seen the Light” and is no longer “of this world” (Earth) though living in it; its “Seven-fold” journey (Path) to the Father has begun.

In contrast, as John of Pathmos (the new “Aan the Scribe” to replace Stephan) reveals in Revelation, the Seven Spirits (Angels) of the Churches represented the seven stages by which Jesus’ Gnostic message was systematically distorted and diluted while preparations went on for the Seventh Chastisement of the Jews – their final and most terrible yet. Only then would the anger of their God “cool” off and a New Jerusalem (modern-day Israel) finally prepared for them when, at last, all Twelve Tribes could be together again. Next, we trace exactly what each of the seven stages of the Church represented.

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