Analogue 7: Freedom from the Powers-That-Be

 ANALOGUE 7

Freedom from the Powers-that-Be

The over-arching powers wish to deceive humanity knowing that we have a natural kinship to that which is truly good. They take the very word “good” and apply it to things that are not good, so that words themselves deceive and enslave us. Yet, when grace comes and we are removed from all that is tainted and placed back with the Good, we recognize ourselves for who we truly are. Being free, the powers seek to take and make us slaves to themselves through time. Because the Authorities seek to control and enslave us so that we will not recognize our true reality, divine power has been granted humanity.

Wherever humanity exists, slavery exists, so in the past, when sacrifices began, animals were offered up to divine power. These were living things offered up alive, only to be killed. One human, however, was offered up to God dead, and yet now he lives.

Synopsis

• Is the doctrine of Original Sin the core problem of humankind? Are we responsible for the difficulties we experience in the human condition, or is something else at work? Are there higher powers or intelligences (perhaps demonic beings) at work who deceive and keep us ignorant and blind?
• This analogue appears to resist the concepts of Original Sin as promulgated by Pauline theology.
• Its examination of the nature of evil as opposition to the Good is founded upon principles of fundamental goodness.
• Though humans are fundamentally good, but they are easily deceived.
• There are some beings (of which there are different dimensional types) who are opposed to the Good and are able to manipulate humanity.
• These beings are deeply immersed in greed, anger, desires to control, domination, and exploitation of others for their own benefit.
• Those opposed to the Good work to create evil through the misuse of language, deceit and lies, calling ‘good’ that which is not good.
• There is a problem recurring in time of humanity becoming deceived about what is good.
• Authoritarian structures of the kosmos seek to limit and control freedom.
• There are counter forces at work, some divine, and what might be called a third force resulting from the work of human beings.
• The ultimate goal of grace is the manifestation of the good, the true and the beautiful.
• The concept of the “true reality” or the “true nature” of a human being is introduced but not defined here. This will appear later in the text.
• The origins of animal sacrifices, enslavement and other conventional religious practices of Yeshua’s time.
• The argument against atonement theology as spiritually and theologically incorrect from the Philippian point of view.
• Self-giving is the true principle of life and is the complimentary opposite of the death-dealing principles of the structures of the kosmos.
• This analogue is a clear-eyed wisdom teaching devoid of our typical magical thinking.

COMMENTARY

Sources of Evil and the Human Condition

The doctrine of Original Sin, rooted in both biblical testaments, appears to be challenged in this analogue of the Gospel of Philip. Perhaps this Gospel is in part a polemic against Pauline theology and its assignment of evil to the fallen nature of human beings or our proclivity towards evil due to

Adam’s original sin of disobedience and subsequent fall and exile from the Garden (see for example the Pauline vision of the human condition as expressed in the Roman Epistle, chapters 5-7). Philip asserts instead the opposite vision: that human beings have a primordial and fundamental kinship to the Good, not to evil. This fundamental shift in perspective is a basic distinction between Oriental Christian theology and its Occidental variations.

But there are clearly difficulties in the human condition. Humankind is not without struggle, particularly against deceptive and deceiving powers that are apparently “higher” in some sense than the normal terrestrial plane and who exercise various kinds of authority over humankind. These powers attempt to create ignorance and to lead humanity astray into deceptive practices. We have a degree of freedom to chose our pathways, but in our choices we are easily deceived. We need strength, grace and guidance, therefore, and we are given it. We struggle, but in these struggles we are never alone. Heaven helps us.

Humankind Embedded

The many aspects of what the Gospel of Philip believes and asserts about the true nature of the human condition is complex. Perhaps this theological landscape is part of a larger teaching that was held by various of the early Jewish communities, particularly those in Galilee. While none of this is historically clear, aspects of these teachings are found in the Books of Enoch and other texts from the Apocrypha. These teachings also appear to be foundational not only for Yeshua’s own teachings but may also be features of the First Temple Mysticism that appears throughout this Gospel. Essential to this Philippian text is the understanding that human beings are embedded in matrices in which powers greater than themselves exercise their ability to deceive and lead humanity astray. In the early traditions, these were called Archons, which implied that they had over-arching, extra-terrestrial power, having to do with spiritual authority which seeks master-control over humankind. Typically, they were understood be to be unseen and hidden powers, sometimes thought to be “off world,” and other times having to do with temporal authorities acting behind the scenes. Whether these could all be classified as demonic is unclear, but their intent was malign in that they asserted their own will to impose their viewpoint on susceptible human beings, turning them through deceit from the truth of things towards falsehood.

Liberation through the Third Force

There is, however, a third force which originates in the special, loving activity of human beings called self-sacrifice or self-giving and which acts to counter these negative forces and energies bending us toward evil and ignorance. The Gospel of Philip appears to be making a very subtle argument quite different from the perspective taken by the western theological tradition. Philip agrees that grace is essential, for it comes alongside us and puts us back into alignment with the Good. He goes further, though, suggesting that all human beings who act in alignment with the Good and the divine Will begin to create a third, liberating force that acts against the Archons. In the same way that Yeshua as the Anointed One created the power of the Good through self-sacrifice, we too cancounteract those forces that seek to keep humanity oppressed and ignorant. It is always the intention of divine grace to come alongside us, bringing us light and understanding, helping to restore us back to what we truly are. Using wisdom and truth as liberators, the divine grace is an active Agency working amongst us, not to do everything for us because we are helpless and sinful, but to assist us to counteract the very forces of evil that have enslaved and kept us from knowing our own true identity. Now, realizing that we are not alone in the cosmos, we too can begin to act. The third force is, then, a synergy created by humans who work in accordance with and alongside the divine grace to challenge and counteract the activity of the Archons. It is this very course of action that Yeshua takes: as the “first” human to do so, he disrupts the powers that be, and thus in his work helps to create this new, third force whose elements will become clearer as we work our way through Philip’s Gospel.

The Role of Animal Sacrifices

Throughout the centuries, animal sacrifices have been offered up as acts of appeasements to the various gods and powers existent or imagined. In Philip’s view, such rites are an actual part of the very force of the Archons oppressing us; the sacrifices are not efficacious and only bring more death. It’s not clear whether Philip sees the powers promoting these practices as earthly authorities or higher-dimensional entities or beings, but the text implies that human beings became enslaved and entrapped by them, even when they have been sanctioned by religious authority. For Philip, only self-sacrifice and self-offering creates a counterforce having the power to bring liberation, resurrection and life; everything else is death-dealing. Yeshua offered himself on just such a path of liberation from these forms of death, and having passed through death’s gates, he now lives free. This statement places the death of Yeshua in a very different theological framework from the traditional Pauline or western theological tradition, for Yeshua was not offering himself in atonement for human sin but was rather creating a path of liberation by the force of love through selfgiving. The text argues that the divine Reality always accepts the latter form of self-offering because it is the way forward, away from self-centered will, power, and greed, toward enlightenment, resurrection, and life. In this sense, by his own self-giving, Yeshua created a third force which he lets loose to liberate the world. This was his mission, his work, expressed so

powerfully in this Gospel. It is a pathway that we too may join if we choose.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. The Gospel of Philip has an interesting and perhaps unique theology and worldview. What do you make of the viewpoints expressed in this Analogue? How closely aligned is it with the way you see or analyze the human condition, or how far apart is it from yours?
2. Do you accept the notion the some higher, unseen powers influence humankind both for the good and for evil? What, in your view, are archons (what the Apostle Paul calls “principalities and powers”?) You might want to do an online and do an internet search about this topic.
3. How susceptible are human beings to false narratives that lead us astray from our own true nature? What is ignorance? Is it merely the absence of truth, or is also there deliberate deception and human willfulness involved?
4. Do you ascribe to the doctrine of Original Sin or to its opposite, Original Goodness or Blessing? Are we all incorrigible sinners as St. Paul would assert, or are we intrinsically good though often deceived and ignorant?
5. How does grace (the divine Agency) counteract evil? How does human freedom work when malign and benign powers are asserting themselves to enslave the human mind and heart? Is negative energy just the mirror image of the good, or is something else involved?
6. How would you describe Yeshua’s self-sacrifice at the event of his crucifixion? Is it a death like the slaughter of animals imagined in atonement theology, or is it something else entirely?
7. What exactly is the third force and how did Yeshua create it? How do or might you participate in it yourself?

Notes for Reference and for Study

A. We live in a society with a worldview stripped of anything “supernatural,” that is, of elements beyond the natural or material order of the world. Our ancestors, almost worldwide, had a very different point of view. Traditional metaphysics postulated a universe made up of many dimensions beyond space and time, inhabited by a variety of creatures unseen by us, the majority of which were benign or positively oriented beings, some of which were classified as angels. There were other creatures, however, a minority, who were malign in their intentions toward humankind and the universe. In the early writings of the Christian tradition these were called Archons and were described variously as evil spirits, fallen angels, demons, egregore-like human projections, and cruel human authorities hidden often behind the scenes. All of these were in some way part of an embedded hierarchy whose realms were not just in what we call normal space and time, but often beyond it. The writings of the New Testament and the teachings of Yeshua postulate just such a population which is at war with even

higher, heavenly powers. 

A contemporary author who takes this viewpoint seriously and works out its implication is the author Walter Wink. You might consider exploring some of his writings, The Powers Trilogy:

• Naming the Powers: The Language of Power in the New Testament, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984.
• Unmasking the Powers: The Invisible Forces That Determine Human Existence, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986.
• Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992.

B. Some early texts of the Christian scriptures, particularly the writings of the Apostle Paul, are full of passages concerning grace and law. Paul put the two terms in opposition and set the stage for resistance to the practice of the the Jewish Torah by the non-Jewish congregations of Yeshua’s followers. For him, grace was contrasted with the law which was opposed to freedom; freedom taken away in submission to Jewish law was seen as a form of slavery. Understood in this way, grace restores freedom when it abandons the Law (the Jewish Torah), allowing grace to reign. It is important to realize that many of these terms in this context were used in a polemical way in an argument that distanced later Christianity from its Jewish roots. The Gospel of Philipadvances an argument different from the Pauline tradition: It is not the Law (the Jewish Torah) that subjugates humans, but the world powers (the Archons), perhaps here understood as the subjugating political powers of Rome under the influences of evil. (in our day, we might see the Naziism or excessive capitalism in a similar way as negative energies that have now gained a life of their own.) In Philip, divine Grace does not release people from the demands of the Law but from slavery to the powers that bind human beings mentally and spiritually.

The divine Grace releases human beings from this bondage and then Truth sets them free to act in a new way—in alignment with the power of Grace and the Good. By aligning with the divine, humans can create their own “third force” positive energies. This is something different from Grace or Divine liberation, something powerful that humans have created and set free into the world to oppose the Archons or their energies. (We might, for example, how non-violent resistance to evil as an energetic quality created by humans has escaped into the world with a life of its own, pushing back against the archonic energies).

C. A modern French writer and philosopher, Rene Girard, has proposed a very sophisticated and elaborate argument concerning human and animal sacrifices. Common, collective and personal guilt is ascribed to an innocent third-party whose murder permits the condemned to be exculpated and set free, releasing the building and built up tensions in society (at least temporarily). Girard sees that underneath the surface, this is a system in which human beings use religion and mythology to control human violence. Arising perhaps from mimetic desire, rivalry and the unequal distribution of wealth, religion directs the violent impulses of resentful human beings onto scapegoats, real or imagined, who then bear society’s burdens and cleanse the cultural field, allowing a measure of social peace. His analysis determines that this ancient practice is an essential instrument of social cohesion but, in the end, that it binds human beings to a form of ultimate cruelty. In his analysis, these forms of religious sacrifices ultimately give rise in archaic religion to prototypes of all later forms of political and social institutions in human society. In this regard, the Gospel of Philip seems to sense something of the waste of religious animal and human sacrifice, even in the tradition of Judaism, which perpetuated this ancient practice. 

For further study, Peter Theil, a modern biographer of Gerard, suggests that:

“[i]f you like classic novels, read his first book, Deceit, Desire and the Novel. If you're interested in mythology, read Violence and the Sacred. If you like Shakespeare, read Theater of Envy. If you know the Bible, read I See Satan Fall Like Lightning. If you want a view of his whole career over time, look at The Girard Reader. And if you want to immerse yourself in all his ideas at once, stick with Things Hidden."

Notes to the Translation

• The powers overarching this world are called archons and they have to do with spiritual authority which seeks master-control over humanity. They may be unseen powers, or they may be temporal authorities, or some combination of the two.
• The term “human” or “humanity” translates a Coptic word that comes from the Greek term the Anthropos (understood traditionally as the totality of humanity). Sometimes it is used for humanity in general. Sometimes it means the total organism of spiritual humanity in its complete form, and at other times it stands for the representative of humanity, the Son of Humanity, as Yeshua typically uses it in the canonical Gospels, the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene.
• The term “word” is the same for “name”, which were used also in the previous analogue. Words and names refer to a reality, but they can never embrace the whole of that reality, and often, as this analogue suggests, are used deliberately to deceive.
• The term “through time” refers to the temporal ages of time—aionian time. “Divine power” is a term that designates a force of energy whose source alone is God.
• “One human” refers to the representative of humanity, (son of the Anthropos), who in this instance is understood to be the Christ.