Esoteric study

[focusedman]

The Bible can be interpreted exoteric (outer) and esoteric (inner). For Jesus said “Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you”. This is an esoteric (inner) study of the Bible because the whole Bible is a book about you and how your mind works. The Bible is a manual of mind operation and all of the characters, events and the places in the Bible represent various aspects of the operation of the mind of man. Esoteric indicates Spiritual meaning, real meaning beside exoteric, literal meaning. Jesus spoke in parables. “This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand”. A parable is basically an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. It has an esoteric and exoteric (inner and outer) meaning. Jesus wanted his disciples to gain the esoteric meaning behind his teachings. "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given". A parable is a story beside a story. Indicating that a parable is TWO stories placed side by side for comparison. It is impossible to interpret the Bible literally and get its intended meaning. The first story about The prodigal son is a story about a son who told his father “Father, give me my share of the estate”, and there squandered his wealth in wild living. The son began to be in need and when he came to his senses returned unto the father unto which the father received him with open arms. The story of the prodigal son is a story about the great love between a father and his son. And if that is all you get from that story then you have missed the real story. The story about the Prodigal son interpreted esoterically is about how man gets away from God in his thinking and what happens to man when he gets away from God in his thinking. How man may come back to God and the blessings of man coming back to God in his thinking. It also identifies the father's house as man's true consciousness of God. You can get a lot of beautiful things out of the Bible but you must always look for the second story. And unless you have gotten the esoteric meaning of the Bible you have missed its real Spiritual meaning. The theologians have totally missed it and will never teach you this in a million years.

[Paidion]

For Jesus said “Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you”

Nowhere did Jesus say, "The kingdom is inside of you."

Ths concept seems to have arisen from Luke 17:21 where the NKJV reads “nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” But this could not have meant "the kingdom is inside of you" for when He said this, He was addressing the Pharisees, and the Kingdom of God certainly was not inside of them!

A Kingdom consists of a king and his subjects, in this case—Jesus and His disciples. So the Kingdom was in the midst of them. And that is the way that the New American Standard translates it, as well as the ESV, the LEB, the Diaglot and Darby.

[backwoodsman]

For Jesus said “Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you”.

That's from the Gospel of Thomas. Nothing like it is ever stated in the Bible, and it seems much closer to gnosticism than to anything the Bible says Jesus said. So it's not reasonable to believe Jesus ever said it.

This is an esoteric (inner) study of the Bible because the whole Bible is a book about you and how your mind works.

The Bible isn't about us, it's about Jesus. It's not a self-help book, and God is not a self-help guru.

When you start with a flawed premise, whatever you build on it only gets you farther away from Jesus and truth. Whatever hidden knowledge or truth you think you found there is really only deception.

[focusedman]

The book of Thomas clearly teaches that the Kingdom of God is within. Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you". The disciple Thomas had a first hand account of what Jesus taught and said. Many Christians believe this gospel is heresy because it isn't part of the traditional view of Jesus. That "traditional view" however was decided about 300 years after Jesus was around, by a Roman ruler whose primary interest was to centralize power of the state. Constantine decided to omit the Gospel of Thomas when he was choosing which gospels to include in the nationalizing of Christianity. Unlike the other gospels which talk about the life of Jesus, the Gospel of Thomas primarily talks about the teachings of Jesus. The King James Version DOES say that the kingdom of God is within you. "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you". Luke 17:21. The King James Version was translated from the original Greek manuscript. All these other versions of the Bible are not reliable sources because they are man’s interpretation. Just as the Holy Spirit indwells in you and your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God is within you! IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO INTERPRET THE BIBLE LITERALLY AND GET ITS INTENDED MEANING. The power is ALWAYS within. Don't be fooled by these false prophets.

[Paidion]

"The Gospel of Thomas" wasn't written by the apostle Thomas. It was written by a gnostic. The gnostics were constantly writing fake gospels or other fake works, while claiming them to be apostolic.

The early historian of the Christian Church—Eusebius from the 3rd century, included "The Gospel of Thomas" among a group of books that he believed to be not only spurious, but "the fictions of heretics."