THE MEANING OF THE WORDS GRACE AND PRAYER Dr. Brown Landone (Melchizedek Teacher) Dr. Henry C. Monteith (Student) Everything written below is from the point of view of our personal cosmology. It is not intended to be true for anyone else reading it, and we are most certainly not attempting to convince the reader of anything whatsoever. Even if we desired to do so, it is impossible; because one person can never transfer his understanding to another! It is for you to prove or disprove according to your ability to expand your consciousness. You are a Microcosm, created to view the Cosmos from your own unique point of view; therefore, if you wish to experience the indescribable joy and happiness of knowing who you are, where you came from, and where you are going, you must develop your personal cosmology from scratch to the level of awareness where you feel the wondrous bliss of being at One with The Consciousness of Energy! Remember, right and wrong are dual aspects of the same thing! Arguing between them is useless, because one cannot exist without the other; it is for you to choose which side you will physically realize and which side you will leave unfulfilled in your unconscious mind where it must eternally serve as a reference! WHAT DOES, SAVED BY THE GRACE OF GOD, MEAN? For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice : For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Matthew 9:10-13. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. Matthew 12:7. THE MEANING OF MERCY, AND DOES GOD DESIRE IT FROM US? There are very few scholars who doubt the belief that Christ was, perhaps, the greatest spiritual teacher who has ever lived. This is true especially because of -1-
the great emphasis that he placed upon The Love of God for Man; the Love of Man for God; and the Love of Man for Man! LOVE is one of the four processes of creation and it is second in importance only to the process of MIND. After Jesus was severely criticized by the Pharisees for eating with publicans and sinners, he replied that God had said: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice! Now what does mercy have to do with the Four Great Cosmic Laws or with the Four Processes of Creation; and, particularly, with the Process of Love? For a very long time we wondered why God desired mercy from us and it is only after studying the roots of the word which was translated mercy from the original Greek Text did we discover what it meant at the time Jesus used it. It appears that the planes of consciousness of the scholars who translated the New Testament from the original Greek were not higher than level three. The word mercy is their translation of the root word eleos. Three other words derived from eleos are eleutheria, eleutheroo and eleutheros. Eleutheria is translated liberty eleven times in the New Testament. Eleutheroo is translated make free six times in the New Testament. Eleutheros is translated free eighteen times, liberty once, free man once, and free woman three times! They were not translated any other way! Following this discovery, we learned that during the time of Jesus, there was a city 26 miles southwest of Jerusalem, called Eleuther-polis, and sometimes Eleo-polis, both meaning the same thing. Polis means city, and eleuther or eleo, means FREEDOM OF JOY! Therefore, Eleutherpolis meant THE CITY OF JOYOUS FREEDOM! The base root means: JOY THAT IS FREE! Consequently, the statement that Jesus made when he was criticized by the Pharisees for the JOY he found in life meant, God hath said: I desire joyous -2-
freedom, not sacrifice, as in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7. What a wonderful revelation: God does not require mercy from us; rather he desires that our hearts, minds, and souls be filled with JOY that is free; or JOYOUS FREEDOM! This discovery thoroughly verifies our conclusion that it is impossible for any unique Microcosm to comprehend and understand anything conceived on a plane of consciousness which is at a higher level of Spiritual Awareness than their own. However, it is not surprising that the translations of the Bible from the original Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic are terribly twisted, distorted, and contorted! The reason for this is the fact that Mankind has been evolving through the darkness of the Caterpillar Phase of the cycle of their Spiritual Evolution on earth for the past 12,000 years. During all of this time, the planes of consciousness of nearly everyone on earth are below the third level; therefore, it is virtually impossible for the vast majority of the people to comprehend and thoroughly understand anything higher than the third level of Cosmic Spiritual Awareness. The scholars who translated the Bible were not exempt from this. It follows then that if the translation of eleos as mercy was greatly distorted, then the English translation of the word grace may have undergone even more extensive twisting, distortion and contortion! The early Christians had a supreme spiritual power which no other people on the face of the earth have ever had at any time! Repeatedly they said, that their power came by the grace of God! What did they mean? Everyone on earth wants JOY! No matter what else we obtain, unless there is JOY in life, life is empty. We may seek its substitutes, and if we can find neither the JOY nor the substitute, life is simply not worth living! Grace was translated from the Greek root word char and in the New Testament there are four important Greek words derived from the root char. They all have the same basal meaning, no matter how poorly they have been translated into English. Three of these four Greek words, which are derived from char, are chairo, charisma, and chara. They are translated in the New Testament as follows: -3-
Chara is translated as joy fifty three times. Charisma is translated as gift fifteen times. Chairo is translated as rejoice forty two times. There are occasional other translations, as for instance the seven times chara means gladness, joyous, or joyfully et cetera; then twenty times that chairo means be glad, or joy, or joyfully! Since all of the proper translations of these four Greek words, which have been derived from char, deal exclusively with JOY and the act of being JOYFUL, how on earth did the translators of the New Testament come up with the idea that the Greek root char had something to do with being saved by the grace of God? We have been told that if we but believe that Jesus suffered on the cross for us, we are saved by the grace of God. But nothing has ever been revealed to us explaining what the grace of God actually means. If it means pity, then certainly it seems strange that God should insist that we give Him pity, because we believe on salvation through His only begotten Son. If it means compensation of kindness to us for believing that Christ was crucified; then that also seems a little strange. Therefore, in order for us to make some sense of this, it is absolutely necessary that we study the word in its original meaning. Charis is the fourth word from the root char; and in the New Testament, charis is the ONLY word translated grace: as in the phrases, the grace of God be with you, or the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ; or lest any man fall on the grace of God. Let us sum up the meanings of these four words: Chairo is translated glad 14 times, joy 5 times, rejoice 42 times, and also all hail, joyfully, God speed, and greetings! Charisma is translated free gifts 2 times; and gift 15 times. This brought us to the word which is most like the root itself, and has the clearest -4-
truest meaning of the root: Chara is translated joyous once; joyfully once; joyfulness once, gladness three times and then, oh glorious illumination of the Spirit, it is translated JOY 53 times! This is the KEY to the meaning of the gift of God and the grace of God; for from this root charisma is translated gift, chara is translated joy, and charis is the only word translated grace! No matter what the infrequent translations are, in the case of each word derived from the root char, there is always a meaning of JOY! And 98% of all translations of chara are JOY, with no other translations except joyfulness, gladness, and joyousness! And charis from the same root is grace? To discover this was, to us, an amazing EUREKA experience! Taking this discovery to heart can transform your life has it as transformed ours! What is explicitly and implicitly implied is that we cannot be saved EXCEPT by the JOY of God! (The JOYOUS expansion of consciousness through the Love of Pure Learning! Christ tried to explain this with 7 parables and 13 illustrations; he was not understood then and very few, if any, understand him now!) It was this which gave power to the Early Christians. Wherever they went, their lives were so filled with JOY, their faces were so radiant with JOY, and their eyes so shone with JOY, that people rushed to them begging to learn the source of it. It was the longing for such joy that swept through the entire Roman army and transformed it; turned it from brutality to an army of brotherly love. It is such joy that has the ability to transform the lives of everybody on earth today! Now let yourself have a joyful experience by reading the Bible again with your new knowledge of the real teachings of Christ in mind. Wherever you see grace, replace it by joy as in the following verse from John 1:17: For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Replacing grace by joy the corrected verse reads: For the law was given by Moses, but JOY and -5-
TRUTH came by Jesus Christ. Now think deeply about the following verse in Acts 15:11: But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they. Replacing grace with joy this verse reads: But we believe that through the JOY of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Since grace was translated from the root char, which really means joy, it can only be concluded that It is JOY that SAVES! The commendation in Acts 20:32 reads as follows: And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Changing grace to joy and take out the words which were added by the translators, this verse becomes: And now, brethren, I recommend you to God and to His JOY, which is able to build you up, and give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Romans 6:14 also gives us pause to think deeply; it reads: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. A more accurate rendition of this may be: For sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the law to do this or don t do that; for you are to live in the JOY of the Lord. A more enlightening translation of I Corinthians 15:10 is as follows: I am what I am because of the JOY of God: and His JOY which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the JOY of God which was with me. The statement: I labored more abundantly than they all clearly indicated the extend to which this verse has been distorted from the original Greek. The JOY of God cannot be bestowed, it must be earned by expanding your plane of consciousness through the Love of Pure Learning in every way possible! The disciple is clearly indicating here that he had worked harder at expanding his plane of consciousness than all of the others! Changing grace to joy in II Thessalonians 2:16 we have: Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, have given us everlasting consolation and good hope, through JOY! Now we can clearly understand Luke 2:10: Fear not, for I bring you good tidings -6-
of great JOY ; and Luke 15:10, there is JOY in the presence of the angels of God; and in John 15:11, These things have I spoken unto you that my JOY might be full. Again we repeat to you: fear not, but seek the JOY of living in the Spirit of expanding your plane of consciousness by gaining wisdom and understanding from the experiences of your life and then dedicating yourself eternally to THE LOVE OF PURE LEARNING! Remember the promise of Christ which states that the gift of God is eternal life; the word translated gift is charisma, meaning JOY. It is the JOY of God which is eternal life. The revelation of this truth is not only eternal life to you, but in the magnificent simplicity of truth, it is the joy of the youthfulness for which you have been striving here and now; it is the JOY of your life hour by hour. All of this makes it quite evident that Christ and his Apostles and the Early Christians preached that man is saved by the JOY of the Lord. There is concern in all the teachings of the Early Christians, that those converted to brotherly love might not backslide, and thus fall from the JOY of God which Christ so fervently taught. And now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my JOY fulfilled in themselves. John 17:13 WHAT DO THE WORDS PRAY AND PRAYER REALLY MEAN? What GOD (BCE) intended and Christ (The Spirit of the Octave of the Sun) taught of prayer, are almost the exact opposites of our usual prayers of today. Let us study first the words translated pray and prayer in the New Testament (NT) and then those in the Old Testament (OT). Only five words and their variations are translated pray or prayer in the NT. Four of these are Deesis and its variant Deomai; Erotao; Enteuxis; and -7-
Parakaleo. But not one of these is translated pray or prayer more than a few times each in the NT, and they do not mean true prayer; that is, the longing or reaching of the Soul to God, for answers to prayer. Deesis or Deomai often means asking for information (See Acts 8:34). The eunuch asks Philip for information. I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet thus. In this, pray is used as I might use it in saying: Pray tell me of whom you are talking. Erotao usually means to ask a favor (See Luke 14:18): I pray thee have me excused. And in Acts 10:48: friends prayed that one of the apostles would tarry a few days with them, just as I might say to you, Pray, stay a few days longer with me. Parakaleo means to call to. See Mark 5:7. When people of a village thought Jesus was obsessed by a devil, they began to pray him to get out! Enteuxis means intercession, but it is used as prayer only once in the Bible. One of these words is used five times by Christ in the sense of asking for fulfillment of want; and another is used four times by Christ. But they are usually used merely as asking for information or a favor. Since none of these words are frequently used, and usually do not mean prayer as Christ taught it, they do not reveal the nature of true prayer. Euche - is the one other word in the NT which is translated pray or prayer more than all others. Its variations are euchomai, pros- euche and proseuchomai, mean looking forward in prayer with strong expectant desire! Below, we discuss Aiteo, for it is translated ask, in the sense of prayer, as: Ask and it shall be given you. But, first let us study GOD S IDEAL of prayer, as revealed in the OT by the words translated pray and prayer. What they mean may be a surprising revelation to you. -8-
There are eleven different words translated pray and prayer in the OT. Here are nine of them: Athar, Beah, Chalah, Chanan, Lachash, Paga, Tsela, Shaal, and Siach. Chalah is translated pray or prayer ONLY three times, Tsela ONLY twice; and the other seven are translated prayer only ONCE each, in all of the OT. Beah means petition; Chanan to entreat; Athar to beg; Paga to intercede; Siach to meditate; Shaal to ask; Tsela to bend and bow; and Chalah, to smooth down. But these words can hardly indicate what God intended prayer to mean; for, seven of them are used only once each, another twice, and the other only three. And since God uses other words for prayer, almost 200 times, a word that is used as prayer only once, is not a word intended by God to reveal his real meaning of prayer. What then does God reveal of his true meaning of prayer? Palal and Tephillah are the two words which are translated pray and prayer nearly 200 times in the OT! Palal means: to think wondrously; to conceive marvels: and even to think of the wonders of one s own Soul! Other words derived from the same root prove its meaning. Palah means, marvelous things, miracles; Pele means, expected wonders; Peli, secret wonders; and Pili, wonderful! So to pray, as God asks you to pray, you do not lament the things you lack, or merely beg for things. Instead you first think of your own Soul as wonderfully made by God in his likeness; and of the wonderful things awaiting you; the marvels your Soul can attain by prayer; the miracle of prayers answered. This is the first step. -9-
The other word often translated pray or prayer in the OT, is Tephillah. One of its roots means to sing and dance joyously in praise of God; and the other means, the occasion for joyful prayer. That this is the meaning of the word Tephillah, is proven by the fact that the same word with the p dropped IS translated PRAISE scores of times! So second, according to God s word, you should pray joyously in praise of the goodness and marvels of God. The greatest transforming power of Earth and of Heaven is TRUE PRAYER as taught by Christ: OF THE DEEP DESIRE OF TWO SOULS AGREEING IN LOVE! This is simply stated in Matthew 18:19, 20: Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on Earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them; yet it is the greatest of the most illumined mystically mystic truths. The word translated ask in the Sacred Promise in Matthew 18:19, means to desire with spiritual intensity; and the word is actually translated crave in another verse in the Bible. Then the condition: if two agree is vastly more significant than is revealed by this simple statement because the word translated agree means more than agreement in thought, or being of one mind. It literally means to sound beautifully together, as two beautiful tones of music in perfect harmony-of-love-in-agreement! This is THE LOST WORD, known of old to those who walked with God. Such prayer, the TRUE prayer, as taught by Christ, unifies itself with the love of God and the COSMOS. That is why such prayer is the only prayer to which Christ has given his greatest promise of fulfillment: if two agree - - - it shall be done! God IS love! And it is GOD who makes all healing possible! And it is AGREE- MENT-IN-LOVE of what you desire, that makes prayer come true, and makes all healings possible; even miracles! -10-
Remember; however, that during the process of taking advantage of this greatest promise of Christ: If two agree on earth, as touching anything they (ask) desire, it shall be done for them, the four great processes of creation must be fulfilled! SUMMARY: There are only four words in the Bible, often translated Pray and Prayer. These four tell you how GOD (BCE) and Christ want you to pray. The first word is PALAL; it means to MARVEL JOYOUSLY at the immensity and wonders of GOD and all His power and handiwork. This is the first step of Real Prayer; however, it is impossible to marvel joyously at the immensity and wonders of God and all His power and handiwork if you do not know about them, and are continually in the process of having glorious Eureka experiences while continuously expanding your plane of consciousness to higher and higher levels of KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, and UNDERSTANDING! This is the reason why Aristotle said: The Purpose of Man is to Know! The second word, Pros-euche, which is translated pray or prayer, is made up of two words. One, means to marvel at the divinity of your own self made like unto God; to vision the wonders of what your soul can do in communion with God. The other part of the word means, to look forward expectantly with JOY; to expect what your heart desires, JOYOUSLY! This is the second step of Real Prayer. Marveling at the divinity of your own self made like unto God is an act clearly implied by Christ in the Thomas Gospel: Jesus said: If those who lead you say to you. See, the 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 inside you, and it is outside you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty. The Gospel of Thomas:3-11-
The third word is EUCHE; It means to DESIRE with all the strength of your heart and Soul. It is even translated to Crave Spiritually. It is the word used most frequently by Christ to mean pray or prayer. It is sometimes translated ASK; but it never means to petition or to BEG. This is the third step of Real Prayer. The fourth word, found in Matthew 18:19, is the only great promise of answer to prayer which Christ ever gave to Man. If two of you shall AGREE on earth as touching anything they desire, it shall be done for them. Therefore, AGREEMENT is the fourth word frequently used in the Bible which tells us how to pray, as God and Christ asked us to pray, so that prayers will always be answered when the four great processes of creation are simultaneously fulfilled. This is the fourth step of Real Prayer. AN ABSOLUTE GOD OF LOVE, IN AN ABSOLUTE PARADISE. A God that is absolute and everywhere cannot come and go! Therefore it is impossible for heaven to come down to earth because God is everywhere and heaven is already on earth. You are living in an absolute paradise where all of your dreams come true; but, you have not been careful about what you desire and the majority of the desires which the people have been having throughout history have been in large part against the laws of nature! Since they have vigorously and intensively followed the four laws of creativity which make all things come true, they have come true, and the world you have around you is what the people have desired, dreamed about and wished! All that we are is direct result of what we have thought! "As a man thinketh, so is he!" In his sermon on the mount, Christ gave a beautiful overview of the manner in which the people must think and act in order to bring about heaven on earth. How many Christians, throughout history, have perfectly applied these teachings in their lives? In several places in the Bible it says: "Be ye therefore perfect, as your father in heaven is perfect." How many Christians are living -12-
perfect lives and having perfect thoughts and desires? They make the excuse that they are too weak and sinful to be perfect; therefore, they cry out for a savior to save them from the awful consequences of their own dreams and desires! Real Christians have absolutely no problem being perfect because they are co-creators with God and are persistently and joyfully expanding their consciousness toward becoming One with all things! You have to earn your right to see heaven, nobody and no thing will ever be able to give it to you for free; because, giving it to you violates the purpose for which you were created! Nobody on earth, in heaven, or in hell is going to rescue you from the hells you have created for yourselves! After you have made your hell, it then becomes the school in which you must learn, in order to rise above the weaknesses in yourself which caused you to dream it into existence in the first place, from the agonizing experiences that are reflected back upon you! You have been created in the image of God, you have all the powers of God within yourself; therefore, you can, and do, create all the heavens, hells, and Gods, from within yourselves. Just as the light of the Sun shines on both the good and the evil and gives them the energy they need to survive, so does God give the awesome power of His Cosmos to everyone that ask it of him and who follows the four laws of creativity in that respect! For example, God gave Hitler all of the power he needed to conquer the world, but his own ignorance of Cosmic Law, and the awful reactions to his unlawful desires, reflected back upon him, and crushed him! What you call 'evil' is but the negative reactions to your own ignorance; the reactions then become your teachers in the school of hard knocks; and, until you learn your lessons properly in this school, which you designed for yourself, you will remain enfolded in your self-created evil! The great mythologist Joseph Campbell said: "All the heavens, all the hells, and all the Gods, are within you!" I and my beloved soulmate say: "Once we have all realized the glorious truth that there is NO SUCH THING AS DEATH, and in the process of getting rid of our bodies, after they have been worn out wonderfully serving as caterpillar-type 'tools' of learning for our Divine Spirits, like beautiful butterflies, unfolding from their cocoons, we spread out our opalescing wings and rise up into the glory of a higher universe to continue the joyous expansion of our consciousnesses toward eternity! Once this has been realized, all other things become academic!" So-called 'evil' and the dark illusion of socalled 'death', are your greatest teachers in life: LEARN FROM THEM, and -13-
like the butterfly, you will arise! Finally, during the canonization of the Bible, the Gospel of Thomas, the most objective of all of the gospels, was left out or the Bible because they could not understand and appreciate the real truth that Christ was teaching: Christ said: If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the 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 inside you, and it is outside you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty." His disciples said to him: "When will the Kingdom come?" Christ said: "It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying 'Here it is' or 'There it is.' Rather the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, but men do not see it." Soon after the so-called death of Christ, his disciples were looking for him to return; in 500 AD, they were looking for him to return, in 1000 AD, they were looking for him to return, but he has never yet come because his spirit is everywhere and cannot come and go! In 2000 AD, we were looking for him to return; now during this year, many are wishing for Him to return. But, he has always been here, within everybody on earth, waiting for this to be realized by us, and patiently waiting for us to open the door to our hearts upon which he is forever knocking. It is man's ignorance of the true nature of our beautiful and awesomely sublime Cosmos that blinds him to the Heaven that is all around him; therefore, if you wish your eyes to be opened so that you can see the glory of it, then lift yourselves up from the self-righteous dogma which has bound you to the severe constraints of materialism, start learning everything you can from the agony and the ecstacy of your life's experiences, dedicate yourselves with all of your might to the love of pure objective learning, and then deeply concentrate, and profoundly meditate upon all that you have learned under the inspiration and consultation of your divine Spirit which centers and enfolds you! As soon as your consciousness has expanded just a little above materialism, and you start following the teachings of Christ to the letter, your spiritual eyes will open and you will see the -14-
glorious Spiritual Sun of Heaven beautifully shining all around you. This is the one and only manner through which Heaven will again be seen on earth. I, Dr. Henry Monteith, and my beloved soulmate, Erika Monteith, have been living in the bliss of Heaven for many years now; several hundred thousand people on earth are also now experiencing the glory of it with us; the numbers are increasing exponentially; the realization that heaven has always been here, is here now, and will be here eternally is expanding all over the earth! The real meaning of this will become dramatically apparent to every scientifically, mathematically, musically, and spiritually developed person on earth very soon now. The awesome CONCEPT OF ENTANGLEMENT, projected by the greatest physical theory of all time, QUANTUM MECHANICS, absolutely, and conclusively, verifies all that we have attempted to say here. ALL IS ONE! -15-