1 – Introduction
2 – Mystery of Spiritual Energy
3 – Authority and Dominion of Christ
4 – Problems in Christianity
5 – Origin of the Western Version of Eastern Mysticism
6 – Theosophy’s Early Days
7 – The Name of Christ, or What’s in a Name?
8 – Dark Undercurrents
9 – Return of the Christ
10 – Conclusion
Appendix – What Theosophy Hopes You Won’t Notice
3 – AUTHORITY AND DOMINION OF CHRIST
The previous post ended with these words of Jesus Christ: “I am the Light of the world… I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 8:12, 14:6) Either Christ was a complete fool to say such a thing about Himself, or we are faced with a troublesome question: was He just a sage from the 1st century, or was He God stepping into His Creation?
The implications are enormous. If we are the created beings, then we would be smart to choose to be subject to the One whom God our Creator gave birth to and sent into the world. Knowing who He was, Jesus did not need to go around trying to prove it, as if He were unsure of His status or authority:
Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form,
He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated Him to the place of highest honor and gave Him the name above all other names,
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
And every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Philippians 2:6-11, NLT)
Christ’s authority exists, period. His claims, as quoted above – of being the Light of the world, the way, the truth, and the life – may, to the skeptic, sound extraordinary or presumptuous. But Christ wasn’t just speaking off the top of His head when He made those claims of divinity. For there is a solid foundation of understanding about His divine origin and of God’s plans for the future. Certain prophetic messages from the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation bring this out clearly.
I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.
(Daniel 7:13-14)
Jesus often referred to Himself as the “Son of Man”, meaning He identified Himself as the same One spoken of in the above prophetic passage in the Book of Daniel. And after His Resurrection, Christ again appears in the Book of Revelation, again as Earth’s future Ruler. In the following passage, the apostle hears a vast company of angels and spirit beings:
And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are You… for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
(Revelation 5:9-13, ESV)
What a grand picture! In John’s vision, the entire Creation of living creatures, in both Earthly and Celestial Realms, acknowledges and submits to the One who was born the Son of God. Christ suffered and died that He might redeem humanity from its wretched state. Then He rose from the dead, to become King over the entire Creation. That we know by faith since we don’t see it now. But the Book of Revelation outlines the future End of the present Age and the dawn of the new Age to come under the dominion of Jesus Christ.
And in case anyone might think otherwise, Christ is a benign and just Ruler, not a tyrant. The only reason anyone would refuse to come under His authority is pride, and unwillingness to let go of wrongdoing. “Everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” (John 3:20) We have choice and free will and can choose to go in the right direction.“But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” (John 3:21)
Getting back then to the question, what about these pitfalls, mentioned in the previous post, that come up sometimes in New Age practices: spiritual pride and influence of demonic spirits? With real faith in Christ, we have the antidote to both problems (problems which, by the way, can pop up in any area of life).
Knowing that we are protected by the power of Christ should give us faith to dive more into the realm of spiritual reality and spiritual experiences. In addition, any true believer knows that his salvation can only come through faith in the saving power of Christ and not from any great knowledge or skill of their own. So it’s dual protection: from evil spirits outside and from the sin of pride inside.
Allowing the Holy Spirit to reign in our lives is the challenge, but, by doing so, this enables Christ to rule in our lives. In this day and age, Christ is not here, and we await His Second Coming. In the meantime, His presence is still with us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Often however, Christ is like the proverbial “elephant in the room”. As real and powerful as He is, the room’s occupants ignore the obvious. That is, we who dwell in the Earthly Realm are often blind to the reality of Christ because of our unwillingness to let go of ourselves and accept His authority in our lives. It also has a lot to do with the fact that a barrier exists in our realm that prevents our having a clear view of spiritual realities.
This, by the way, is an area where Eastern Mystics and New Agers excel – in the knowledge of how to access the spiritual realm. That very strength and skill, however, is also a weakness, in that it causes them to be less willing to accept the authority of Christ. The same holds true, by the way, for anyone who has a good deal of natural talent and ability; they too have difficulty in letting go of themselves to accept Christ’s authority.
About the extraordinary influence of the Holy Spirit, Christ made this intriguing statement, “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.” (Luke 12:10, Matthew 12:32) This Scripture about the sacredness of the Holy Spirit implies that we are accountable to the Spirit of Truth, as much as we are to God the Father or to Christ. They are, after all, all part of the same Godhead.
The Holy Spirit did not have a physical presence or reputation in the Earthly Realm (as Jesus did). For that reason the Holy Spirit cannot be targeted or misrepresented. A person could misunderstand who Christ is because of their cultural background and so reject or blaspheme against Him… unwittingly in ignorance.
But there is no possibility of misunderstanding when the Spirit speaks to a person’s heart. And if a person follows that, he or she will be blessed and heading in the right direction. For “the Spirit of Truth… will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13) And as a person yields to the Holy Spirit, they will also be led on the path towards Christ who said that the Holy Spirit “will testify of Me”. (John 15:26)
