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Eric J. HeBert, 3rd Circle

Subject: THE MESSIANIC CONCEPT AND IT'S COMMONALITY WITHIN JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM

An Essay for Admission into 4th Circle

of the Church of All Worlds

Religion, as a historical institution, has several common ingredients:  Answeri
ng questions about

where we came from; why are we here; what happens after we die; how should we d
eal with the

other beings sharing the universe with us; and what will happen if we follow th
ese "instructions."

One of the basic ingredients of religion was expressed by Nathan Ausubel in "Th
e Book of

Jewish Knowledge" as such:  "Almost every people of ancient times, when faced w
ith the bitter

frustrations of life, spun for itself a dreamlike Utopia to yearn for, a 'golde
n age' to await."  Not

the personal 'carrot at the end of the stick' example in Christianity's, as wel
l as others, proffering

if you live the life we tell you then you shall go to Heaven, but the universal
 'everything will be

all right in the end'.  This ideal satisfies our worldly concern that our prese
nt conditions are

inadequate. For if all goes according to plan, the Great Redemption will come a
nd place the

world into the ideal place of our dreams. Judeo-Christianity, as well as many f
orms of Paganism,

have express notions about how and what this Global Jackpot will pay off.  The
Messiah is the

Judeo-Christian herald of the arrival of this 'golden age.'



In Judaism, the Messiah will come and establish the Kingdom of God on Earth (as
 opposed to

heaven as the Christians would have it).  This kingdom would be inclusive of al
l peoples as long

as they accept the One True God and His torah.  The medieval rabbinical savant,
 Maimonides,

expressed in the Mishneh Torah the general view of believing Jews concerning th
e Kingdom of

God:  "In that era, there shall be neither famine nor war, neither jealously no
r strife.  Blessings

will be abundant, comforts within reach of all.  The one preoccupation of the w
hole world will

be to know God."  (This battle cry of zealots, the preoccupation to know God an
d the single

obsession with their religious tenets, has been the downfall of most great moti
vated causes.)  In

the words of Isaiah ben Amoz (8th century BCE), Isaiah 2:2 states..."That the m
ountain of the

Lord's house shall be established as the top of the mountains,..." Hmm, sure so
unds like Greek

influences showing through to me.  Does Mount Olympus ring a bell.



The prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures showed the Messiah as coming in two dif
ferent roles.

One was "humble, and riding upon an ass," whereas the other was "with the cloud
s of the

heavens" to annihilate opposers and have all rulerships serve Him.  (Zech. 9:4;
 Dan. 7:13)



The entomology of the word Messiah, is from the Hebrew root verb ma-shahh', mea
ning "to

smear," and so "to anoint."  Messiah (ma-shíahh) means "anointed" or "anointed
one."  The

Greek equivalent is Krisstos' or Christ.  There are many references to the adje
ctive Messiah

used in the early parts of the Torah.  Several Judaic Kings, such as David and
Solomon, were

considered messiah, "anointed ones." It was not until the latter parts was the
word used as a noun

to indicate "He who is coming."



In Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth had come to be the Christos, but was rejecte
d by the Jews of

the time.  Since the "fact" that the Messiah had to suffer and die was not reco
gnized by most

Jews, this point was stressed by early Christians when preaching to Jews.  (Act
s 3:18, 17:1-3,

26:21-23)  Jesus sends assurances to John the Baptist that he is truly "He that
 should come."

This is taken to mean the Messiah.  Jesus performs many miracles and feats that
 his disciples

take to be proof that He has fulfilled the Jewish Prophecies.  Jesus was resurr
ected two days after

his death and spent forty more days here on earth training his apostles to spre
ad his gospel. We

have been promised that He will return again, an event commonly known to be The
 Second

Coming of Christ.  Upon His return, those who "died in Christ" would return to
heaven with him.

Also at this time Jesus would have one final battle with the forces of evil, Ma
nifest in the Devil,

and banish these forces from the universe forever.



As the Jews await the coming of the Messiah to herald the arrival of the golden
 age of the

Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, and as the Christians believe He has come and shall
 return to

purge the universal of all evil, we the Pagans do portend to have a similar out
look in which we

would endeavor to create our Utopian Society with the sweat off our own backs.
 How many

retreats have been created, even if it was for only a weekend, to express our m
ost basic feelings

that we could all live in harmony and with love.  This was the way I related to
 this concept up

until I read Anodea Judith's article, "The Gaean Conspiracy" in Green Egg #100.
  As she had put

forth that "Gaea is not only alive, She is conscious," Anodea goes on to say, "
It is a recognition

of the evolutionary process that must take place as our planetary being awakens
 to a more

integrated, self-reflexive state of global consciousness.  I put forth that thi
s burgeoning

consciousness is our Messiah awakening.  There was no need to await for the Com
ing.  She has

been here all the time and as we are Her consciousness manifest, She is now bec
oming aware. I

do put forth that the Gaean Conspiracy is a messianic principle in concept.



All the work that we have been doing all along has been our attempts to underst
and the direction

of Gaea's Evolutionary thrust so that we may become partners in Her growth.  As
 Gaea is the

Goddess of the Church of All Worlds it has become part of our mission to actual
ize the reuniting

of Her children through tribal community dedicated to responsible stewardship a
nd evolving

consciousness.  For what better should be in the forefront of our minds but wha
t kind of world

do we wish to have our Mother see when she wakes up.  In the same way our mothe
rs would get

pissed if we made a mess in the kitchen making breakfast, can you imagine what
the Great

Mother is going to say about the mess we made on this planet?



The certainty of the fate of the world gives the individual the confidence of c
orrect choice in

confirming that everyone will come to the same conclusions about the universe a
s you did.  This

Confidence of Correct Choice leads to prostletysing.  If you believe, fundament
ally, that

everyone will come to the way of thinking and since the way of thinking that yo
u have chosen

with the utmost care and scholorship is the greatest thing since sliced bread a
nd canned beer,

then it would be the most kind and considerate thing to convince as many people
 as you can of

the inevitable universal outcome, and it's more compationate to do it sooner th
an later.Even

when our pagan beliefs are based on conclusions of an experiential nature rathe
r than empirical

data.



One theory I have of the impending Christian Apocalypse as foretold in the Book
 of Revelations,

is that the Gaean Awakening would be the destruction of  all that is Christian.
  It would be the

end of the universe as they know it.  The Spanish Inquisition in the Middle-Age
s may have had

more wisdom then some have given them credit.  For they might have been correct
 in their

assertion that the pagans of the time, the European Witches, were the embodimen
t and

manifestation of the anti-Christ.  We could very well be the instrument for the
 abolition of the

Judeo-Christian world view.



As someone who was raised a Jew, as one who has been inundated by Christianity
from being a

citizen of this country, and as one who has found the comforts of home in Pagan
ism, I have

reach certain conclusions and have created some biases.  My research for this p
aper has been

distasteful.  The Christian writings I have consulted have left me with a sour
stomach and a

headache time and time again.  The authors constant insisting of their Ultimate
 Correctness

disgusts me.  I have long ago so stipulated that the Christians have accepted J
esus of Nazareth as

the Christos.  My personal ambivalence to the existence, nee the very need for,
 the Messiah leads

me to say "So what!"  If at the center of Christian faith is that Jesus is the
Son of God and the

Savior, why are all of the Christians texts I've encountered, which are written
 for their fellow

Christians to read, so obsessive over convincing the reader of these facts.  Wh
om are they trying

to convince?  Themselves?  Why do they insist on preaching to the converted?  I
, as an outsider,

view this stance of theirs as a position of doubt, of lack of confidence and of
 lack of faith.