Don’t Count the Catholics Out
“The Kingdom of Heaven Is Spread Upon The Earth But Men Do Not See It.” St. Thomas (Gnostic Gospels of the Nag Hammadi library)
As I wrote about a couple weeks ago, Project 2025 is a decades long movement of the The Council for National Policy. The Council for National Policy (CNP) is the offshoot of centuries of religious, Christofascist, Talibangelical efforts to convert the United States to “Dominionism.” This salvation movement is born of the “7 Mountain Politics and Theology” and embraces the language of “war” to reclaim the kingdom of God. Dominionists want full control over all aspects of society because, in their view, our current society is run by Satanists that have led to the apostacy of the culture and, of course, the church no longer having power over the masses. (No more ka-ching!)
The “7 Mountains Mandate” is a Christofascist effort to completely take over the country and reshape it into a biblical country where everyone adheres to their contrived worldview of the USA of Jesusland. While the denomination most behind the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) are the Protestants, a large number of the people behind Project 2025 are Catholics.
Kevin Roberts, is the man behind the creation of Project 2025 and he is a member of a far right Catholic group known as Opus Dei. How far removed from Christianity is Opus Dei? Basically, a world away….a Universe away.
When the Nag Hammadi library (Gnostic Gospels) were unearthed in 1945, Christians were given a glimpse into the ‘spiritual’ teachings of The Christ. The Gnostic Christ is the ‘Sufi’ version of Jesus. Jesus the dancer, Jesus the orator, Jesus the teacher of Love.
When you read about the history of the Gnostic Gospels, you find a timeline of the church fighting against their translation and release. These texts expose a Jesus that is deeply at odds with the modern church and a complete antithesis of today’s Evangelical (Tailibangelical) movement.
In the PBS series with Bill Moyers, Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth, they discuss the writings of Nag Hammadi and, in particular, those of Thomas who quotes Jesus as saying: “The Kingdom of Heaven Is Spread Upon The Earth But Men Do Not See It.” This goes against everything for which Opus Dei and the far-right Catholic movement stands. After all, if the kingdom of heaven is not some far off eternity, then it is the Now…or what Jiddu Krishnamurti called: “The Is.” The Now, is a secular and Gnostic spirituality. Eckhart Tolle wrote a book on this appropriately titled: The Power of Now. Krishnamurti told us: “Truth is a pathless land.”
In the Thomas Gospels, he also tells us that ‘spiritual’ Jesus says: “What you look for has come but you do not know it.” Again, Jesus tells us that the love, the connection to spirit, is here, NOW. It already has come and is with us at all times. We don’t need to open a bible or repeat some scripture. We simply need to be open enough to experience the ‘glory of God,’ ‘The Spirit,’ ‘The Kingdom’ in ‘the moment.’ If you accept that Spirit is Now, there is no more need for ‘political’ power.
The Council for National Policy and the New Apostolic Reformation will tell you that the Gnostics, Krishnamurti and Tolle have derived their worldview from Satan. However, the Gnostics were/are the ‘Living Christ.’ Jesus as love, Jesus as vitality, Jesus as ‘The Now.’ The church created the Jesus of salvation from sin as a control over the masses and accumulated incredible wealth for centuries…at least until science came along and showed us that light is made up of prisms and photons and that the Earth was simply part of a Solar System that in turn was a part of a gigantic Universe. Once you start off with original sin, you are a mark…a sucker. (Ka-ching!)
In Richard Bach’s: Illusions he says, “The original sin is to limit The ‘Is’. Don’t.” In Tim Alberta’s book: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism he writes of today’s tax-free churches that spout “Christian” theology combined with political extremist rhetoric and exposes how far removed the modern theocrats are from the teachings of The Christ. Alberta finds some pastors though who have stood fast in the teachings of Jesus and have shunned the current far-right Opus Dei theology. He quotes one of them who says: “We don’t need to change the world. We’re not called to change the world. We are called to be the world already changed by Christ. That’s how we’re salt. That’s how we are light.”
The world ALREADY CHANGED by Christ. In other words: “The Kingdom of Heaven Is Spread Upon The Earth But Men Do Not See It.” Project 2025 and the current apostolic movement are a mockery of the teachings of The Christ. They go against everything for which Jesus stood. The Gnostic Jesus wore colorful robes and danced the Sufi dance in ecstasy for the love of his Creator. He invited us to experience that love. The Gnostic Christ only asked us to be alive in the Now and to Praise the Creator. As the Islamic mystic Jelaluddin Rumi says in his poem: One Song:
“We have borrowed these clothes,
these time and space personalities,
from a light,
and, when we praise,
we put it back in.”
Rumi invites us to hear Jesus’ call to experience: “Love’s Confusing Joy,” as translated by Coleman Barks. This is the essence of today’s so-called Satanic Apostacy, the polluted, perverted world the CNP and the NAR see. It is a world of love, it is a world of recognizing the Living Christ ALREADY here, NOW, in the Kingdom of Heaven. Love’s Confusing Joy. If they could remove their blinders of hate, of judgement and self-righteousness, they could experience the Living Christ and the Love that Jesus invited us all to participate in with him.
The author Wayne Dyer said it best: “Send out love and harmony, put your mind and body in a peaceful place, and then allow the universe to work in the perfect way that it knows how.”
The church is threatened by these messages. It clings to a past whereby it dictated reality to the masses. The church has never been able to get over losing its power and control. Opus Dei, the CNP and the NAR are all the last gasps of a dying movement, long past its due date. They will never set us free. We must claim our freedom for ourselves.
“It hurts to set you free
But you'll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die
This is the end”
Great article! I have read a lot of the books you mentioned. I think it would benefit people a lot to move toward a more spiritual way that does NOT include any religion. Religion seeks to make, and now obviously, enforce rules and exercise ultimate control over individuals. Spirituality concerns more having a spirit that is free and recognizing that. A good place to start would be reading Richard Bach’s book, “Illusions”, and trying to see yourself in it.