After studying the Bible and religious theology for most of my life, I think there are many buried truths and misconceptions I have embraced over the years.
As a Catholic, I was taught I was born a sinner, and the only way to salvation was to confess my sins to a Priest. I followed those teachings all my younger years until I started questioning the need for me to confess to a human. Wasn’t the Priest a sinner, just like me? It didn’t make sense!
When I became a ‘born again’ Christian, I believed I could work out my salvation through repentance for my sins. Since I still thought I was born a sinner, how could I repent from the sin I was born into (commonly called Original Sin)? What a quandary!
When I landed in New Thought, this all started to make sense.
First, I stopped believing I was born into sin. Of course, as a human, I make mistakes (sins). I wanted to rise above that old teaching about being born into it. After all, even the Bible says we (humans) are created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27). How can we be born a sinner if we are formed from God?
And, if I was not born into sin, what was the purpose of Jesus’s life on earth?
Instead of believing that he was the great exception, needing worship and adoration, I saw that he was the great example. Didn’t Jesus tell us that we would do greater things than him (John 14:12)? How can he be the exception if we do greater works?
Rocco A. Errico, Th.D., Ph.D. explains it best in his article, The Mistaken Identity, published in the October Science of Mind Magazine:
Jesus, as God’s lamb, had the authority and power to reveal and demonstrate the power of meekness over sin, sickness and death. He was a prototype of a coming awakened and realized humanity. But first he had to remove the sin of the world.
According to Rocco A. Errico and New Thought’s teaching, the ‘sin of the world’ is mistaken identity or the buried truth. Most Christian-based religions worship Jesus rather than embracing his wonderful teachings. Jesus never asked us to worship him; he asked us to follow him! I then understood that Jesus wasn’t the end of the search for spiritual living; he was just the beginning.
And it is knowing this buried truth that has made all the difference.
Hi Sandy,
Kudos!!! great article …
With all due respect, no one attains truth from church, all the right answers and miss all the spiritual depth.
We get shepherded by others who preach sin, preach fear of God, preach concepts that must be followed, otherwise, we’ll go to hell if you don’t, and if you follow, heaven is presented to you after death – after death? who knows what is going to happen after death?
The buried truth is that: salvation is not in the church,
truth is HERE and NOW, and we need to let go of everything that we were taught and
realize and depend upon the Lord seated in our hearts, how very blessed we are
Blessings,
Fátima